All Mixed Up!
by lilac-kat
Summary: From the author of "Olive's Last Partner": Oh no! People are disappearing all over town, and weird objects are popping up everywhere! Could they be connected? When Olive goes missing, it's up to Agent Otto to solve the mystery. Can he find the missing people and figure out the weird objects before it's too late? And who is this Mariana Mag...? (story does not contain OLP/shipping)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hello again, readers! So since I haven't had any submissions yet on the Contest (which I _highly_ encourage you to check out if you haven't already!) and I got a little bored waiting, I decided to start a new story! YAY! Something to note in the description is that this story does not contain OLP. OLP stands for my last story "Olive's Last Partner", and it pertains to any of the events/shipping/etc. that I created in that story. So since this story doesn't contain OLP, there will be no shipping or any  previous fan-created events in it. However, I do have two new OCs that you'll meet in there, so I'm excited for you to meet them!  
** **On a side note, those of you who read "Olive's Last Partner** **", thanks again for all the support! 2,849 views and counting, making it my most viewed story ever! SQUEEEE! But you all made that possible, so give yourselves a pat on the back! Now let's see if this story lives up to that potential... ;)  
Well, what are you waiting for? READ! ! !**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own the show, and I have no relation to _Odd Squad_ whatsoever except that of faithful viewer and fangirl.**

* * *

 _It's a quiet afternoon at Odd Squad Headquarters._

 _At least, it is for Ms. O._

 _As for the other agents, that's another story. Everyone is busy with something. Olive and Otto are on their fifteenth case of the day; Oren and Olaf have disappeared on some mission in the potato room; Owen is hard at work patrolling the halls and spinning his baton-thingy; Orchid is in the dinosaur room with Octavia and Oz giving the dinosaurs a bath; Dr. O has her hands full with the seasonal allergies (one agent got them so bad he broke out in gummy-bear hives); Ori is who-knows-where; and even Oscar has claimed to be too busy to leave his lab—never mind that he was last sighted brushing Norman's fur._

 _But with everyone too busy to come to her office, Ms. O is bored. Nothing on her desk seems entertaining enough. She doesn't feel like getting up to go boss anyone around for no reason. Even the juice tastes bland today. Ms. O groans and slumps in her seat. At a loss for anything better to do, she reaches into her filing cabinet, selects a file at random, and tosses it in front of her on the desk. Stamped across the front in bold red lettering is the title. She reads it aloud:_

" **ALL MIXED UP!** ".

 _Ah, yes. Ms. O remembers that case well._ _At least, most of it. She'd kind of been, well, let's just say MIA for that last part._ _But with notable exception to the case Olive had dubbed "6:00 to 6:05", this one was one of the most difficult and bizarre cases known to Odd Squad. Unlike the one with the clock and the dinosaurs, which took place over the course of five minutes (quadrupled, of course), this case dragged on for more than a week before it was solved. And Agent Orson's report captures the entire story in perfect detail._

 _Ms. O allows herself a small smile._ Well, why not? _she thinks._

 _Opening the file, she begins to read._

* * *

Chapter 1

There was a flash of blue light, and Agents Olive and Otto stumbled out onto the lush green grass of the park. "So," Otto said, dusting himself off, "where's the oddness?"

"Odd Squad! Thank goodness you're here!"

Olive recognized those voices very well. "Larry! Phyllis! Hello!" she greeted the approaching couple, delighted at the reunion.

Larry shook her hand. "It's good to see you and your partner again, Olive," he told her. "We've been having all kinds of oddness this morning."

"What seems to be the problem?" Otto asked, folding his arms.

"Well," Phyllis began, "we brought our baby Laralisa out to the park for a picnic. But when we opened our picnic basket...well, that's when the fruit flies appeared out of nowhere."

"And now we can't get rid of them!" Larry finished.

Olive and Otto glanced at each other. "If it's just fruit flies, why did you call us?" Olive asked.

"Yeah," Otto agreed. "Fruit flies are normally seen around food. That's not really our problem to get rid of them."

Now Larry and Phyllis glanced at each other. "Just come and see," Phyllis said, motioning for the two agents to follow them.

Ten seconds later, Olive and Otto understood exactly why they had been called. "Ohh, you mean _literally_ fruit flies," Otto said.

Sure enough, sitting on a picnic blanket underneath a shady tree was Baby Laralisa—with every kind of fruit imaginable flying around her head on feathery white wings. The curious little baby was currently batting at a mango as it swooped past, while an apple and a grapefruit were pulling at her hair and a flock of cherries swarmed everywhere like mosquitos.

"What do we do?" Larry implored. "We can't even get to our daughter!"

"Not to worry," Olive reassured them. "We have a gadget to fix this." She reached into her pocket and felt around, then looked down in surprise as she realized that it was empty. Turning to her partner, Olive said, "Otto, I think _you_ have the Groundinator."

Otto started. "I do? But I've never seen it—"

"Here, lemme find it," she cut him off. Bending over behind him, Olive reached into Otto's back pants pocket and felt around. Flinching, Otto cleared his throat self-consciously and felt his cheeks turn red at Larry's and Phyllis's stares.

"Got it!" With a little tug on Otto's pants, Olive pulled out a large gadget with four parts to it: one had a picture of a hamburger, one a pouting face, one an airplane, and one a flat and grassy surface. There was a dial at its base, and Olive turned the dial until it pointed to the airplane. "Let's get these fruits grounded!" she said, and aimed the gadget at the picnic.

"Oh, be careful!" Phyllis warned. "Don't hit Laralisa!"

"Don't worry, she won't," Otto reassured her. "Olive's good at this kind of thing."

Sure enough, when Olive fired the gadget, each beam found its target. Each pair of wings disappeared, and the fruit dropped to the blanket with a series of _thuds_ —all without so much as a scratch on the bemused Baby Laralisa.

With cries of joy, the two ecstatic parents rushed forward and scooped up their daughter. "Thanks, Odd Squad!" they called, waving.

Olive and Otto waved back. "Have a good day!" Olive called back as she put away the gadget. Then the two agents started off, leaving the family to their picnic.

As they reached the park bench where the tube entrance was, Otto tapped his partner on the shoulder. "Hey, um, Olive?"

"Yes, partner?"

Otto's face reddened again and he took a sudden interest in his matching red converse shoes. "Please don't do that again. With my pants pocket, I mean."

Olive rolled her eyes and pressed her lips together. "Well, in my defense, you didn't know what it looked like or that you even had it. But trust me, I won't. That was all kinds of weird."

* * *

Several yards away, a figure hid behind a tree and watched the two agents disappear into the tubes.

No one would have recognized this figure if they saw them. This was a new villain, who hadn't made their debut yet. The town's society of villains hadn't inducted this person yet, and _this_ Odd Squad certainly didn't have this person on their radar. And that's how this person wanted things to stay. For now.

But as the blue flash from the tubes faded away, the figure smiled grimly. The situation would have to change sometime if the figure was going to get into Odd Squad Headquarters…

 **A/N Hope you all liked that so far! See you all on Chapter 2! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Hooray, school gets out one week from today! Which means more time to work on this story! YAY! In the meantime, enjoy Chapter 2!**

Chapter 2

Back at Odd Squad Headquarters, Olive and Otto sat working busily at their desks.

Actually, that was a lie. Olive had finished her paperwork awhile ago, and had opened up a puzzle book to entertain herself. Otto, meanwhile, hadn't even started on his paperwork yet. Instead, he had spent the last several minutes downloading Soundcheck's newest song, "Probably", and was now watching the music video with his headphones on and the volume cranked all the way up. Thus, he didn't notice when Agent Obfusco passed by and exchanged a disgusted look with Olive.

But later, Otto somehow managed to notice Olive slowly and deliberately mouthing words at him. Lifting up one headphone, he shouted over the music in his ears, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Olive rolled her eyes. "First of all, TURN THAT OFF!"

With a sigh, Otto paused the video and took his headphones all the way off. "Sorry. So what's up?"

Holding up her puzzle book, Olive pointed to one of the pages with her lucky pencil. "I _said_ , can you help me finish this?"

Otto shrugged. "Sure!" He got up and went to stand behind her. "Whatcha working on?" he asked, peering over her shoulder.

"It's my puzzle book," Olive explained. "On this page, I'm supposed to unscramble these words, and they'll spell out 'Things That Hop'. I've already figured out these five—" she circled the words RABBIT, KANGAROO, GRASSHOPPER, FROG, and BEANS "—but I can't figure out the last one." She tapped her pencil on the scrambled word REDLCNIH.

"Hmm. Lemme see that." Otto took the book and pencil from Olive and examined the problem. Muttering to himself, he made a few marks on the page with the pencil, little arcs connecting letters together. Then he wrote out some possibilities in the margins, crossing out a couple as he went until, fourteen seconds after he started, Otto circled his answer and handed back the book with a "Ta-da!"

"Already?" Olive inspected his handiwork dubiously. The written answer was CHILDREN. Surprised, she looked back up at her partner. "Children? What do we have to do with hopping?"

Otto chuckled. "Adults give us a bad rep outside of Odd Squad, you know. Especially when they let us have caffeine."

"Ah, _touche_ ," Olive agreed, returning the chuckle. "And nice job, partner. You're really good at unscrambling words."

"OLIVE! OTTO! IN MY OFFICE! _NOW!_ "

Immediately they jumped up from the desk and hustled up the stairs. Collecting themselves at the top, Olive led the way in through the office doors and said briskly, "You wanted to see us, Ms. O?"

Ms. O set aside the bowl of whales crackers she'd been snacking from. "Yes. Something very odd has happened."

"What's the problem?" Otto asked as they sat down.

"Problem?" Ms. O gave them a weird look. "Who said there was a problem? I didn't. I just said there was something odd going on. You shouldn't make assumptions, Otto."

Otto looked offended. "But you normally say that when—"

" _Anyways,_ " Ms. O cut him off, "someone new has moved into town."

Olive's eyebrows rose. "Huh. That _is_ odd. Who is it?"

In reply, Ms. O slid back her chair and swiveled to face the screen behind her. She held up a remote and pressed a button to pull up a photo. It was of a large, fancy-looking, blue glass-and-concrete building that appeared to be in its final stages of construction. In front of the building was a white sign with an image of a shark on it that read, "Coming Soon: F.T.S. Aquarium!"

"She calls herself Mariana Mag," Ms. O explained, "and she's the owner of the new aquarium being built outside of town."

Otto's eyes widened. "There's going to be an _aquarium?_ _Here?_ That's awesome!"

"I know," Ms. O said with a grin. "Better yet, this photo was taken last week. That means the building is finished, the sea creatures are arriving, and the aquarium will be open to the public by this Monday! I hope to treat all the agents by cancelling work for a day and taking everyone to visit."

Olive and Otto looked at each other in excitement.

" _But,_ " Ms. O continued, "first I need you two to pay her a visit. It's Odd Squad's job to welcome new people in town, and I want Ms. Mariana Mag to know who we are and how to contact us. Got that?"

The two agents nodded. "We're on it, Ms. O," they said in unison.

But for a split second, no one moved. "Well, what are you waiting for? GO!" Ms. O shouted.

Quickly Olive and Otto got up and hurried out of the office toward the tubes.

Sitting back in her chair, Ms. O picked up her bowl of whales crackers (a gift in the mail from Mariana Mag) and popped a handful in her mouth. "Blech, these are really salty," she noted with a face. "Better get another juicebox to wash it down."

* * *

In a dark room several stories below ground, the figure was hard at work. A single lightbulb dimly lit the workbench on which several tools and bits of wiring were strewn about. In the very center was... _it._ The little object, no bigger than a baseball, that the figure had been working to repair for months now. It had been nearly completely destroyed in the last town by _them._ That blasted Odd Squad. The figure grimaced. It had been a hard lesson to learn. Those mistakes wouldn't—couldn't—be made again.

One last circuit board to go. This was the most important one. It enabled the object to be wired to the figure's belt, which had a custom-made alphabet keypad on the side to control it. In other words, without this circuit board, the object couldn't function at all. Carefully, holding the object in the palm of a hand, the figure first soldered the circuit board into place. Then the figure tugged on the wiring woven in their belt, attached it to the circuit board, and clipped the object in place on the front of the belt. At once several lights on the the object blinked on, and it was bathed in an orange glow. "My lifeline is complete once more," the figure whispered with a genuine smile.

Now the only thing left was to attach the outer panels. The figure picked up a stack of four small white plastic panels and snapped them into place, until the object—or gadget, as it could now be called—resembled a life preserver with four lines of orange lights dividing it into four sections. On each of the four white sections, one word had been cut into the paneling to let more orange light shine through and spell out a phrase. This four-word phrase would only light up and show itself when the gadget was used, but the figure didn't need to use the gadget to know what it would say:

 _Factorem Cypris Praedor Nominas_

 **A/N No, I'm not going to tell you what that means...yet. And no, google translate won't tell you what it is, either, because it'll give you the wrong translation. So, HA! ;) But don't worry, you'll find out eventually. Also, fun fact, I was helping my 9-year-old sister work on a puzzle book the other day, and one of the activities we did was to—you guessed it** **—unscramble the words for "Things That Hop"! So I thought it would be a good introduction to the chapter. :) See you all on the next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Almost done with school, yay! In announcements, there's one week left if you want to participate in the Contest! I still haven't had any participants yet and I hope to have at least three. And just a reminder, many of the answers can be found on my _Odd Squad_ Pinterest page ("Odd Squad FTW!"), so it's not impossible to do! Now, in other announcements, "Olive's Last Partner" has just topped the three thousand mark at 3,004 views and counting! I can't thank you all enough for the continued support! :D  
** **Back to this story, shoutout to Shenokzo and Minecraft Danny's cousin for reviewing! Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated, just no hate messages. Please. You'll make Ms. O upset if you send me hate reviews. ;) Anyhow, enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 3

Otto hated traveling by tube. He never liked being squished into a tiny ball, or getting all his insides mixed up and turned around. It was a wonder he never got sick while traveling. As it was, he couldn't even breathe with his lungs scrunched up next to his liver. That's why Otto always took a moment to breathe a huge gulp of the cool, clean air whenever he popped out of a tube.

So it came as a shock to him when this time, after popping out of the tube, he still couldn't breathe. He opened his mouth, but no air came.

Instead, he took in a huge gulp of water.

Otto looked around frantically. They were floating right in the middle of an aquarium tank!

Luckily, though she definitely looked surprised, Olive didn't seem to be panicking. Otto watched as she reached into her pocket, pulled out some gadget, and fired. Instantly goggles and a snorkeling tube appeared on their faces. _Of course,_ he thought. _The Snorkelinator._ Otto smiled with relief as he found he could breathe again.

And that's when the shark attacked.

"MMMMWWWAAAAAAAHHH!" Otto's screams were muffled by the water as a shark zoomed out of nowhere and barreled straight into his stomach. Otto shot back and hit the glass wall with a _bump_. Any breath he had was knocked out of him. But before he could get the snorkeling tube back in his mouth, the shark charged at him again.

Meanwhile, a horrified Olive could do nothing but watch the events unfold. Then something in her seemed to snap, and she quickly swam to her partner's rescue without the least idea of what she was going to do. But before she could get there, the shark whirled around and saw her coming. Instantly it forgot all about Otto and made a beeline for her. Before Olive could react, she felt something slam into her chest and found herself unceremoniously tossed through the water like a volleyball.

Then all of a sudden, the shark stopped. It seemed to smell something. There was a _whoosh_ of bubbles, then quickly as it had come, it was gone. Olive and Otto were left staring at each other, too stunned to do anything but drift in the water.

It was then that they heard a distant splash. Olive and Otto looked up to see a blurry figure waving frantically at them from above the surface. Looking back at each other, they shrugged and began wearily swimming up to the top.

At the surface, a kind young woman pulled the two gasping and coughing agents out of the water and set them on the concrete edge. "Well, you two sure chose an odd place to make your entrance!" she laughed. "You know there _is_ a front door, right?"

Olive pulled off her goggles and rubbed her eyes. "I don't get it," she said breathlessly, staring at the water below her. "I thought for sure..." She looked up at the woman. "Sorry. It seems this aquarium was built right on top of one of our tube entrances. I take it you're Mariana Mag?"

"That would be me!" she said cheerfully. "And I take it you're the Odd Squad?"

"That's us," Otto answered listlessly. He had collapsed back onto the floor and was sprawled out with his eyes closed, wet hair plastered to his face.

Wobbling a little, Olive slowly stood up. "Pleasure to meet you, ma'am," she said, trying to regain her composure. "My name is Agent Olive, and this is my partner, Agent Otto. We were sent to welcome you to town." She glanced back at the water ruefully. "Guess that didn't work out so well."

Mariana Mag laughed again. "It's alright. I apologize for Diesel. He gets excited easily and he's very playful. Half dolphin on his mother's side, you know. Had to throw in some lunch to distract him from you two. But you don't need to be afraid of him. Diesel wouldn't hurt a fly."

"I beg to differ," Otto mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his stomach. Olive helped him to his feet. At that moment a cool draft blew in from somewhere, and both agents began to shiver.

"Goodness me, what am I doing?" Mariana Mag exclaimed. "You poor dears, you're soaked to the skin, of course!" She opened a door in the wall nearby. "Come inside here. My office is just down this hallway, I've got towels in there for you to use."

Normally, Olive might have objected to being called 'dear', but she was too cold and too wet to argue.

A few minutes later, a grateful Olive and Otto were wrapped in fluffy yellow towels and curled up in two comfy little chairs. Mariana Mag had meanwhile insisted on making them hot cocoa, so she was bustling around a kitchenette connected to the office while Olive and Otto took the opportunity to size her up. The woman had long, wavy strawberry-blonde hair and a cute face with pointed elfin features. Her skin was covered in freckles, her darting eyes were a piercing green, and she had long, slender fingers that moved quickly and adeptly. She wore a marina-blue wetsuit with bright yellow vertical stripes on the sides, and a bulky yellow fanny pack was strapped around her waist. Olive guessed she was about thirty.

"Here you are!" Mariana Mag came over with two steaming mugs and handed them to the agents, who thanked her and accepted them. Then she pulled over her desk chair and sat down beside them. "So, I suppose this is the time where you ask me questions about who I am?"

Olive and Otto looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure," Olive agreed.

"I'll start," Otto said. "Ms. O told us you were the owner of the aquarium, and we've only seen you here so far. Are you the only one who works here, too?"

Mariana Mag laughed out loud at that. "Goodness, no! I have a few dozen employees scattered around. It's just that I prefer to be the one to watch Diesel, so I stay in this area when I'm not giving tours."

"So you've done this before, then? Running an aquarium, I mean," Olive broke in.

"Of course! It's all part of the family business. We've been running aquariums for as long as I can remember. My father passed this down to me after I graduated from college, and I've been head of the F.T.S. Aquarium ever since. I used to own an aquarium like this in the next town over, but it was shut down. Had some... _unfortunate_...things occur..." Her face darkened for a split second. But then the shadow passed, and Mariana Mag was her usual chipper self once more. "So that's why I came here! Your Mayor Macklemore was very kind in letting me move my facility to this town."

The two agents smiled at the thought of the mayor. Then something else occurred to Olive. "Hold on. You said 'F.T.S. Aquarium'. What does F.T.S. stand for?"

"F.T.—oh! Yes! It stands for French Toddlers' Sphere," Mariana Mag explained. "They're a corporation from France that focuses on anything encouraging child development. They sponsor my aquarium. Actually, it was them that gave me the idea to change my name to Mariana Mag. Said an ocean-themed name would appeal more to the children."

Otto cocked his head. "Then what's your real—?"

At that moment a beeping alarm went off on Mariana Mag's watch. "Oh, look at the time! It's time to feed Diesel for real." She glanced at Olive and Otto. "Would you two like to watch?"

The two agents exchanged nervous glances, at which Mariana Mag laughed again. "Oh, don't worry. He won't come near you if I instruct him not to. That's what this is for." Unzipping her fanny pack, she pulled out a blue whistle.

Olive stared at the whistle curiously. "Are you sure he isn't more dolphin than shark?"

Mariana Mag shrugged. "I honestly don't know, Olive. All I know is he acts like a bit of both. Now, come on, I'll show you!"

As they followed her back out into the hall, Otto smiled to himself. Mariana Mag and her aquarium animals were an odd bunch by the looks of it, but she seemed friendly enough. She definitely had a way with marine life, that was for sure. He couldn't wait to come back for a proper aquarium visit, so long as Agent O'Brian relocated the tube entrance. Still, there was that nagging suspicion in the back of Otto's mind: Mariana Mag hadn't told them her real name, and to his knowledge, there was no such thing as the French Toddlers' Sphere.

* * *

Evening fell. It had been a long day. But the time had finally come to test the repaired gadget.

The figure crept out of their lair and stole into the twilight. The gadget needed to be tested in a remote area, where its use wasn't likely to be discovered just yet. It wasn't the right moment for the new villain to make a grand debut. Not yet. Time was needed to test the limits of this town—and of its Odd Squad.

Years of self-imposed training had made the figure a fast and effortless traveller on foot. In under an hour the figure had arrived at a lonely mansion on the outskirts of town. The sign in front by the gate read, "Welcome to Shapely Manor". Stealthily the figure shimmied over the wrought-iron fence and snuck across the yard. The figure knew all about Shapely Manor and its lone inhabitant from that birthday crime in the newspaper many months ago. But time had passed since then, and the inhabitant had slipped back into his reclusion.

Sliding up to the wall, the figure peeked inside a nearby window. What luck! There he was, dozing in a comfortable armchair by the crackling fireplace, rectangular reading glasses askew, an old dusty volume lying forgotten on his lap. Better yet, the two servants were nowhere in sight, having been dismissed for the night. The figure smiled. Without looking away from the man inside, long and spindly fingers typed something on the belt keyboard and hit the 'Enter' key with a flourish. Suddenly there was a low humming sound, and the gadget in the center of the belt began to glow bright orange. The figure waited a split second to let the energy build up, then punched the big orange button in the life preserver's center.

Instantly a white-hot, orange-tinged beam of energy shot out and struck the poor, unsuspecting Lord Rectangle. Then with a sudden bright flash, he was gone.

Meanwhile, the figure exhaled with pleasure as a warm rush of power flooded through from head to toe. _Oh, how I missed this_ , the figure thought. But just in case, the figure craned their neck to see what had been left in the armchair. Satisfied with what they saw, the figure turned around, shimmied back over the wrought-iron fence, and stole away into the night. "Let Odd Squad figure _this_ one out!" the figure gloated in a whisper.

The item left behind in the armchair was a green plastic toll card.

 **A/N I was THIS CLOSE to having Olive point at Mariana Mag's wetsuit after she introduced herself and Otto and saying, "This is my ninth favorite color." But I didn't. :) Oh, and if you're wondering what a toll card is, google it. Anyhow, more coming soon!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Out of school and about to start a series of like a gazillion summer camps. Also got my first submission for the Contest, so yay! And btw the Contest deadline was extended to June 15 on request, so there's still time for anyone who wants to participate. Nothing else to say, so I present to you Chapter 4!**

Chapter 4

The next day, Olive was late to work.

Not by much, only about fifteen minutes. But it was still enough to worry Otto. She always came promptly at nine o'clock, it wasn't like her to be late. He paced back and forth in the trophy room, checking his watch every five seconds, until finally he heard the telltale _boing!_ of a tube arrival, and out walked Olive.

"Partner!" Otto exclaimed with relief. "where have you _been?_ "

Olive looked a little flustered, but she tried to compose herself. "Sorry I was late, Otto," she apologized. "See, I made my to-do list for the day, but the number one item on there was to do another page of my puzzle book—" she pulled it out and held it up, "—but then I did another page, and another, and I just lost track of time!"

Otto looked at her for a bit. "You must really be hooked on that book if it can make you late."

"I know!" Olive flipped through the pages as they walked back to their desks. "I've never done a puzzle book that didn't have math in it before! See, here I did a word search, there I did a crossword, then over here I did a connect-the-dot drawing, and over there I had to spot the differences. But lemme show you the page I'm stuck on—" she opened the book to a certain page and handed it to Otto.

"Hmm. 'How many words can you make out of the phrase "Scientific Method"? You should come up with at least 50!' " he read aloud, leaning on the edge of his desk. Then Otto's gaze flicked to the fifty blanks provided below, where Olive had written the following words:

Science  
Met  
Cent  
Dot

"That's _all_ you came up with?" Otto asked, looking back up at her in surprise.

Olive shrugged. "Hey, it's not my fault I'm not good at this kind of thing. I only unscrambled those other five words from yesterday because I knew they were all things that hop. But do you think you can help me?" she asked, handing him a pencil with her best mock pleading expression on her face.

Otto laughed, not believing her expression for a moment. But already his mind had begun to select and rearrange letters, so he didn't need a second bidding. Taking the pencil, he sat down and set to work. Meanwhile, Olive was hungry from forgetting breakfast this morning, so she left Otto to the puzzle book and headed over to the Break Room for a snack.

It didn't even take two minutes for Olive to select a strawberry yogurt (not raspberry, as she was careful to check), but the moment she sat down at her desk and stuck in her spoon, the puzzle book landed in front of her with a soft _whumph._ "Done," said Otto's voice from behind the filing cabinet.

Olive stared at the book, open to the page Otto had been working on. Not only had he filled all fifty blanks, but he had also filled up the margins! Olive read through all the words in disbelief:

domes  
mode  
modes  
the  
thief  
medic  
disc  
nest  
scene  
nice  
mice  
dice  
heist  
his  
this  
them  
mend  
send  
tend  
fend  
fit  
fits  
shift  
sit  
set  
net  
nets  
hot  
cot  
cots  
not  
dot  
don't  
tot  
toes  
toe  
foe  
foes  
theme  
themes  
tie  
ties  
scent  
cents  
mint  
mints  
dent  
dents  
hint  
hints  
tint  
tints  
find  
finds  
mind  
minds  
hind  
mince  
fence  
fences  
deem  
seem  
test  
meet  
done  
cone  
fine  
mine  
dine  
time  
dime

This list went on and on. "Partner!" Olive spoke incredulously. "There's got to be at least seventy words here!"

Otto couldn't resist a smirk. "What can I say? I'm just that good."

With a smile and a playful eyeroll, Olive put the puzzle book away. "Okay, that's it. I am _not_ letting you touch that book again. You've taken too much of my self-esteem for me to allow that."

Otto was still coming up with a good joking retort when suddenly Agent Oscar ran over and skidded to a halt beside their desks. "Hey, guys! Can I, um, borrow you two for a sec?"

Glad to change the subject, Olive quickly nodded. "Sure thing, Oscar," she said, rising from her chair. "What's the problem?"

"Well, I just need your advice on something. We can't tell if—here, maybe it's better if I just show you..."

Oscar led them over to the lab and showed them over to the main lab counter, where Agent Oren was sitting uncomfortably in a swivel chair. At the sight of Olive, Oren groaned. "Seriously? You brought _them_ to help you—?"

"Just show them, Oren," Oscar cut him off.

Oren grimaced, but reluctantly he stood up and turned around.

Olive couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing. " _See?!_ I _knew_ she would do that!" Oren whined to Oscar. But it was no use. Now Otto and Oscar had joined in the laughter.

Trying and failing to catch her breath, Olive managed between bouts of laughter, "You—sat—on a—shape crystal?" She collapsed against the gadget table in a fresh fit of giggles.

Sure enough, a large purple rectangular growth had appeared on Oren's behind. "It wasn't my fault!" Oren protested. "Olaf knocked me over and I fell backward right on top of it! And now Oscar won't even _fix_ it!"

By this time the trio had managed to calm themselves down. "Anyhow," Oscar said, wiping stray tears of laughter from his eyes, "that's why I need your guys' advice. I can't fix it because Oren and I can't tell if that's a square or a rectangle."

"I can't even _see_ it!" Oren chimed in.

Olive and Otto examined the shape. Sure enough, all four sides looked to be about the same length, and yet two of the sides seemed ever so slightly longer. "Well, why don't you measure the sides to find out?" Otto asked.

Oscar sighed and grabbed a ruler. "We tried that, see?" Bending down, he held up the ruler to one of the sides of the shape, but as he did so, the shape immediately rotated and knocked the ruler out of Oscar's hand. "Oren sat on an active shape crystal, and they're sensitive to being measured," he explained.

"Or maybe Oren just has a sensitive rear end," Otto whispered to Olive, who chuckled.

"Enough, okay?!" Oren shouted in frustration. "Can we just _please_ get this over with?"

"Don't worry, I have an idea," Olive reassured him. "Why don't we call Lord Rectangle? He'd be able to tell us if that's a square or not."

"Good idea!" Oscar agreed. "I'll do that now." Pulling out his badge phone, Oscar dialed for Shapely Manor and waited as it rang...and rang...and rang...and rang...until finally it went to the answering machine. Oscar _hmphed_ and tried again. Still no answer.

"Here, lemme try," Otto offered, pulling out his own badge phone. Again, the phone rang over and over, but this time someone picked up after about the sixth ring. "Hello?" a woman's voice said.

Otto recognized the voice as that of Ms. Triangle's sister, the maid Melissa Steinerflute. "Hello, ma'am, this is Agent Otto from Odd Squad," he said politely. "Is Lord Rectangle home?"

"No, I'm afraid not," came the reply. "May I take a message?"

"Oh, um, that's alright. Can you tell me when he'll be back?"

There was a pause on the other end. "I'm sorry, but I don't know," the maid said. "I don't even know _where_ he is. Lord Rectangle sometimes leaves on sudden business trips, but he usually tells me or Brendan where he's going and when he'll be back. It's not like him to forget to tell us."

Otto mulled over this. _Very odd, indeed._ "Well, thank you anyway," he eventually said. "I'll call back for him later." Feeling dissatisfied, Otto hung up and related the conversation to the others.

"Ugh, does this mean I have to stay like this?" Oren groaned.

"No, it doesn't, Oren," Olive told him, "because I just thought of something: isn't a square just another type of rectangle?"

For a moment, all three boys stared at her. Then suddenly they seemed to get it, and chorused, "Ohhhh, right." Sure enough, when Oscar set the Putbackinator to the rectangle setting and fired, the shape disappeared.

Relieved, Oren ducked out of the lab and went to go find Olaf. After being thanked by Oscar, Olive and Otto headed back to their desks to get some work done. Yet Lord Rectangle's odd disappearance wouldn't stop circling through Otto's mind…

* * *

It wasn't long before it became very clear that the incident involving Lord Rectangle would not be the only one of its kind. That same day, Miss Baker disappeared from her bakery shop without warning. When the next customer arrived, all he found behind the counter were a pair of orange skis that looked to be made of glass. Two days later, Agent Octavia went to the ballpark to visit Estimation Eddie, but all she found was his eyepatch and a small bottle of iodine. A sticky note was attached to the bottle, which read, "Like his name, this isn't an exact value..."

Not even the town's villains were spared. For instance, the day after Miss Baker went missing, Tiny Dancer watched Symmetric Al leave his apartment and head down to his favorite coffee shop. But as he left the building, she saw his wallet slip from his back pocket and fall to the sidewalk. Tiny Dancer immediately picked up the wallet and danced after him, but when she got to the coffee shop, he wasn't there. However, at his favorite table she found a curious little glass figurine of a mime. Later that afternoon, Delivery Debbie knocked on the Shapeshifter's door to deliver the pizza she'd ordered. When there was no answer, Debbie slipped inside the unlocked door and set the pizza on the table. It was then that she noticed a toy boat filled with fluffy white feathers sitting on the kitchen counter. Debbie then assumed that the Shapeshifter was in the middle of shapeshifting—until she picked it up, and it felt just as light as a plastic boat filled with feathers.

Many of the villains were growing nervous. They had known, of course, that a new villain was in town, but none of them could have imagined that this villain would ever turn against _them_. Furthermore, none of the townspeople were likely to take notice of a few missing villains, or if they did, it's not like they would be terribly concerned. Odd Squad wasn't likely to care, either, but at least they would notice.

And notice they did. The day that Estimation Eddie disappeared, agents were sent out to round up every odd object left behind by all the missing people. Yet no matter how much the objects were analyzed in the lab to see if there was a connection between them and the disappearances, nothing could be found. Nobody could make heads or tails of the situation.

That evening, the mysterious figure returned to their lair after using the belt gadget once more, confident that the latest "disappearance" wouldn't be discovered until the morning. So far, everything was working out perfectly. The figure wasn't notorious yet, but those that knew of their doings were just the right amount of fearful. Better yet, this Odd Squad was still its same old traditional self, with its same old traditional methods of solving cases. As long as Odd Squad kept that up, the cause of the disappearances would never be known.

Still, the figure wasn't satisfied. As of yet, they still hadn't been able to infiltrate Odd Squad Headquarters. Vengeance wouldn't be complete until those pesky agents were punished, but to do so required a foolproof plan for infiltration. Tube access was obviously out since the figure wasn't an agent, and it would be too obvious anyway. Yet there was no other known way of getting inside the building. No one even really knew where it was, just that it was somewhere underground. _But if that's so,_ the figure wondered, _how does anyone with an odd problem go report it to them—?_

 _Wait a minute._

Suddenly the figure broke into a broad grin. Now they knew exactly how to get into Odd Squad Headquarters…


	5. Chapter 5

**WARNING: THIS A/N CONTAINS SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED "TRAINING DAY" YET!**

 **A/N Hooray, so now you all _finally_ (hopefully) know who Olive's _real_ last partner was! Maybe now people will actually STOP ASKING ME, but I guess that's what I get for bragging...oops... Anyhow, "Olive's Last Partner" is up to 3,324 views, so yay! Also, fun fact, if you go to the "Potato Ultimato" part of the epilogue of OLP, I made a direct reference to OddTodd, albeit slightly inaccurate, but whatevs.**

Chapter 5

"You wanted to see us, Ms. O?" Olive said in a tired voice as she and Otto sat down in front of their boss's desk.

But Ms. O didn't answer. She was fast asleep with her head on the desktop, empty juice boxes stacked everywhere.

Otto leaned forward and tapped her on the shoulder. "Um, Ms. O? You called for us?"

With a start, Ms. O leapt up from the desk, wide awake. "Yes, I did! Sorry, agents. I'm just...so..." she trailed off as her speech melted into a yawn, and she sank back in her chair.

Olive and Otto exchanged glances. "She's gotta be way more tired than we are after last night," Otto remarked dryly. All three of them had stayed at HQ long past closing time last night with Oscar and his other scientists, trying to analyze the odd objects for fingerprints or other clues. But of course, no such luck. Olive and Otto didn't go home until nearly two in the morning, and by then Olive was too tired to get to her house on the other side of town. Otto invited her over to stay the night, so both of them stayed awake long enough to make it inside his house and then promptly crashed on the living room couch, still uniformed and all. Olive appreciated the favor, but she sure felt sorry for Ms. O and Oscar. They hadn't even gone home at all last night.

"Otto…?" Ms. O mumbled. "Go get three of my coffee juice boxes from the juice bar. I think we all need one."

A few minutes later they all felt much better. "So what did you need us for, Ms. O?" Olive reiterated. "Any news on the disappearances?"

Ms. O sighed. "Yes, and it's not good. Two more people have gone missing, Circle Sue and Coach Roberts—"

" _Coach Roberts?!_ " Olive cried out in horror. "Oh, no! Not him, too!"

In an effort to reassure her, Otto patted her on the shoulder. "It's alright, Olive, we'll find him." He turned to Ms. O. "Were there any more odd objects left behind?"

"Uh-huh." Reaching under her desk, Ms. O pulled out a canvas and a covered bowl. "This was found at Circle Sue's house," she said, indicating the drawing. It was a picture of a circus scene, except all of the people were eels. "And this was found at the soccer field," she added, pulling the lid off the bowl. Inside was a brothy soup with miniature soccer balls floating in the liquid.

Otto wrinkled his nose. " _Very_ odd."

"You're telling me," Ms. O said, setting the objects aside. "Which brings me to what I wanted to see you for."

"We need to do more investigation on this case?" Olive guessed.

Ms. O shook her head. "Actually, no. It's true I'm putting a lot of agents to work on this case, but not you two. What I _do_ need you for is everything else. With so many agents working on this case, I won't have enough agents to solve any other odd problems. So if anything else odd comes up today, I want you two to take care of it so the other agents can focus on helping Oscar. Got it?"

The two agents nodded, relieved. "On it, Ms. O." With that they left.

Luckily, most of the odd stuff seemed to be on hold today. It was as if the odd stuff knew about the town's plight with disappearing people and random objects, and decided to put itself on hold. Sure, there was one case of acute lobster-itis, and another case of pets walking on the ceiling, but not so much that Olive and Otto couldn't handle it.

Then they got a call from a recent friend...

With a _whoosh_ , Otto popped out of his tube and onto the carpeted floor. Brushing himself off, he straightened up and looked around to find himself in the main lobby of the F.T.S. Aquarium. "Phew! O'Brian moved the tube entrance," he remarked.

"Psst! Odd Squad!" came a voice from behind the front desk. Mariana Mag poked her head out. "Can you come back here?"

Olive went up to the front desk and looked around for a side entrance. Seeing none, she took a step back, then jumped forward and hurdled over. Otto followed suit.

"Nice to see you again, ma'am," Olive greeted her, sitting down on the floor next to where the aquarium owner was crouched.

"What seems to be the problem?" Otto asked.

Mariana Mag pressed her lips together and reluctantly said, "Well...I arrived for work this morning, when all of a sudden this happened—" and she held up her hands.

Olive and Otto blinked. "Whoa," they chorused. The fingers on her right hand had all turned into eggs, and the fingers on her left hand had all turned into miniature magnifying glasses.

"Do you have the gadget to fix this?" Mariana Mag pleaded. "Today's opening day of the aquarium, at four o'clock! I can't give tour guides looking like this! What do I do?"

Otto exchanged glances with Olive. " _Do_ we have a gadget for this?" he asked.

"Well, we've got the Putbackinator," Olive replied, "but I think it's back at the lab. Lemme call Oscar to ask." Pulling out her badge phone, she dialed the number 56. "Hello, Oscar? Yes, this is Olive. Is the Putbackinator checked out to anyone? It isn't? Good, Otto and I need to—wait, what?" There was a long pause. "Uh-huh," Olive said slowly. "I see. So it won't—oh, it _will?_ But—ah, okay, gotcha. Thanks, we'll bring her right over." She hung up and began to explain the situation to Otto and Mariana Mag. "The Putbackinator's been combined with the Switchinator. None of our normal gadgets have given us results on this one case we're trying to solve, so Oscar's been combining gadgets and testing those instead. But now Oscar can't pull the Putbackinator and Switchinator apart, and he says the combined gadget's too unstable to leave the lab."

"So I'm stuck like this?" Mariana Mag moaned.

"No, we can still fix you fingers," Olive reassured her. "The Putbackinator part of the combined gadget still works. We'll just have to bring you back to HQ to use it."

"Oh." Mariana Mag looked down at her hands, then back at Olive and Otto. "You're not going to shove me down those tubes of yours, are you? I'm kind of claustrophobic."

The two agents laughed. "Don't worry, ma'am," Otto said. "The tubes are for agents only. Our clients come to HQ a different way."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Mariana Mag stood in the center of Odd Squad Headquarters, looking around in wonder. "Wow..." she breathed, her fingers forgotten. "It's all just so...wow!"

"That's what _your_ face looked like on your first day," Olive whispered to Otto with a grin.

Otto smiled at the memory, then turned to Mariana Mag. "Right this way, ma'am. We'll show you to the lab." He and Olive led her over to the lab, where a sleepy-looking Oscar was plopped on the floor, bent over a tangle of wires, buttons, and control panels. "Oscar? We brought her over."

Oscar looked up, blinked, and yawned. "Hm, great." He made a floppy gesture to somewhere behind him. "Jus' sitter down o'er there..."

Pursing her lips, Olive went to the gadget wall and pulled down a dark brown gadget. "Coffeenator!" she called out, firing at Oscar.

Instantly the scientist perked up. "Wow, why didn't I think of that last night? Thanks, Olive!" Oscar stood up and nodded at the pile of gizmos on the floor. "So, um, this is it. The Putbackinator."

Otto's jaw dropped. "You weren't kidding when you said unstable!"

"Yeah, but it's okay, it still works, see?" Bending down to grab two pieces of the dismantled gadget, Oscar pressed a button and fired at Mariana Mag's hands.

Nothing happened.

Oscar frowned. "Lemme try again." He pressed the button again, but this time there was a fizzle and a _snap!_ followed by a large shower of sparks. Oscar yelped and dropped the pieces he was holding. "Oh dear. Um...I think I just fried the hexagon control panel."

Olive crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Let me guess: Otto and I have to go find another one?"

"That would be great," Oscar agreed, inspecting the small red burn on his hand. "There's another one on the Unpuddinginator, it's checked out to Agent Ohio."

As Olive and Otto dashed off to go find Ohio, Mariana Mag looked around uncomfortably. "Will they be back soon? I have to be at the grand opening of the aquarium in an hour!"

"Not to worry, ma'am!" Oscar said as he unhooked the ruined panel. "We'll get you fixed and back in time. While you're waiting, why don't you sit down over here?" He indicated a nearby swivel chair. "I have to go throw this busted panel out, be back in a tick!" And Oscar ducked out of the lab.

Bending over to avoid the low ceiling, Mariana Mag walked over to the chair and sat down. Alone in the lab, she inspected her egg-and-magnifying-glass fingers thoughtfully. _Wonder what Sheila would say if she saw me now…?_

* * *

In the back room of the lab, all twenty-five Oscarbots were hard at work examining some of the odd objects. Well, sort of. Designed for making perfect juice boxes, the Oscarbots were somewhat limited in terms of examination to chainsaws, soldering, oranges, and drinking straws. But as long as the odd objects weren't altered in any way, they were being helpful nonetheless.

Off to the side, Oscarbot Eighteen held an orange in one hand and the orange skis in the other. "Eighteen, eighteen," he mused. Suddenly something occurred to the robot, and he dashed into the main room of the lab to grab a clipboard. Then he went back to the back room, sat down next to the skis, and quickly began to jot something down.

There was a sound from behind. Oscarbot Eighteen whirled around and looked up at the figure towering over him. "Eighteen!" he said with a grin and a wave. But as the figure began typing something and the belt began to glow, the robot's grin disappeared. "Eighteen…? _Eighteen!_ Eight—!"

All the other Oscarbots jumped in surprise at the blinding flash of light that followed. When the light faded, Oscarbot Eighteen was nowhere in sight. Where he had been sitting, there was a three-piece kitchen cabinet unit lying on the floor, and purple goo was oozing out of the cabinets' doors.

Puzzled, the remaining twenty-four Oscarbots looked around for whoever might have been responsible. But the figure was nowhere in sight.

 **A/N Dunno if I've mentioned this yet, but I'd appreciate it if you readers all left a review on what you think of the story so far, whether it's good, any constructive criticism, etc. (But no hate, please!) Shoutout to Guest, Shenokzo, and Minecraft Danny's cousin for reviewing already! For the rest of you, thanks for all the support, and see you on Chapter 6!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N So the past few weeks I've been at back-to-back summer camps involving archaeology, praise/worship, and Girls' State, so it's been a wonder I got this written. But I did, so... Enjoy!**

Chapter 6

Oscar clipped the new hexagon control panel into place on the dismantled Putbackinator, then held up two of the pieces again. "There, that should do it! Are you ready, ma'am?"

Still seated on the swivel chair, Mariana Mag had been fiddling with the zipper on her fanny pack—or trying to, at least, with eggs and magnifying glasses as fingers—but looked up as Oscar spoke. "Oh, yes, please!" she said, setting her hands on the fanny pack and splaying her fingers.

Once again, Oscar pressed the button and fired. A turquoise beam shot out and wrapped itself around Mariana Mag's hands, but nothing else seemed to be happening. The aquarium owner tensed and began to fidget nervously. Olive and Otto watched the proceedings and began to worry. Would the gadget work this time?

Then there was a sudden flash of white light, and the blue beam disappeared. So did the eggs and magnifying glasses. All that was left were ten perfect, long and slender fingers.

Oscar looked down at the gadget in bewilderment. "Huh. It's never lit up like that before," he muttered to himself.

But Mariana Mag didn't notice. She let out a cry of delight. "Thanks, Odd Squad!"

"Happy to help, ma'am!" Oscar said with a grin, still a little baffled. He began to scoop up pieces of the two combined gadgets and put them away. Their work done, Olive and Otto turned to leave.

"Wait!" Mariana Mag called after them. "Don't go yet. If you don't mind, I'd like to speak with your boss. There's something I'd like to say."

"Want me to go get her for you?" Otto offered.

"Yes, thank you!"

Quickly Otto scaled the main stairs and poked his head in the doorway of Ms. O's office. "Hey, Ms. O? Mariana Mag is here. She wanted to talk to you."

Ms. O sighed and got up from behind her desk. "This better be good," she muttered under her breath, but pasting on a smile, she followed Otto down to the lab.

To keep their client company, Oscar was telling Mariana Mag a story from his early days at Odd Squad. Although Olive kept rolling her eyes, Mariana Mag thought the story was funny and was laughing. But when she looked over and saw Ms. O, she froze.

Ms. O stepped forward and held out her hand. "Good afternoon, Mariana Mag. I'm Ms. O, and I'm in charge here at Odd Squad. You wanted to see me?"

But Mariana Mag didn't react. Instead, she stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at Ms. O in shock. Taken aback, Ms. O turned to the other three agents questioningly, but they were also at a loss. "Um, ma'am? Is everything okay?" Oscar asked.

The aquarium owner blinked and shook herself. "Sorry! You just—looked like someone I knew—a long time ago...um, anyways, yes! Before I dash off to the grand opening ceremony, I wanted to express my gratitude to Odd Squad for fixing my fingers. Since today and tomorrow will be busy days for me, what with opening the aquarium and all, why don't you all come down to the aquarium to visit on Wednesday? Free of charge!"

Otto whooped in delight. "YES!" he exclaimed, giving an equally-delighted Olive a high-five. Oscar grasped the lapels of his lab coat and did a little excited dance.

Ms. O smiled. "That's actually just perfect, because I was planning to bring all my agents down one day. It's a deal!"

"Excellent!" Mariana Mag hopped up from her chair (and bonked her head on the ceiling, but she was too excited to notice) and started to leave. "I have to get to the grand opening now, but I'll see you all then!" And with that she dashed off.

When Mariana Mag was gone, Olive suddenly thought of something. "Ms. O? What about all the agents investigating the disappearances and the odd objects?"

Ms. O sighed. "I know. But if we're still investigating this case by then, we'll all want a break. Then we can return to the case with fresh eyes."

The other three nodded in agreement. "Sounds good," Oscar agreed.

"Mm-hmm. But for now...GET BACK TO WORK!" Ms. O hollered. Quickly the three agents scattered.

A little while later, Olive and Otto were sitting at their desks, waiting for their next assignment. Otto couldn't stop thinking about the planned aquarium visit in two days. As nervous as Diesel made him, aquariums were always fun to visit, and he hoped to see some giant squid. Yet something bothered him about the whole thing. Otto couldn't put a finger on it, but something about Mariana Mag and the French Toddlers' Sphere Aquarium seemed... _off_ , somehow. And then this case that had everyone so tired and so busy. _Come on, count your blessings, Otto,_ he told himself. _At least none of the disappearances are Odd Squad agents—_

Suddenly there was a distressed shout from the direction of the lab. Olive turned to Otto, her eyes wide. "That sounded like Oscar!" she said. Immediately they bolted out of their chairs and over toward the lab, and crashed right into the scientist. "Oscar, what's wrong?" Olive asked.

Oscar started to push past them, but pointed in the direction of the back room. "Oscarbot Eighteen! He's...he's..." and with that he ran out of the lab and up to Ms. O's office.

As he and Olive dashed to the back room to investigate, a sinking feeling settled in the pit of Otto's stomach. He had counted his blessings too soon, he was sure of it. Lo and behold, only twenty-four of the twenty-five Oscarbots were in the back room, and all of them were shouting their numbers and pointing at the three goo-oozing kitchen cabinets lying on the floor.

After sizing up the situation, Olive waved her arms and shouted, " _Quiet! ! !_ " and gradually all the robots quieted down. "Now," Olive continued, "can _one_ of you please tell me what's going on here?"

Oscarbot One stepped forward and silently handed Olive two things. One was a clipboard, and on it was written: "Miss Baker's skis are made of amber." The other was a printout of a reading from Oscar's scanner. Olive and Otto examined the printout. There was a blueprint diagram of the goo-filled cabinets, and below it was printed in big bold lettering, "OSCARBOT EIGHTEEN".

At that moment, Oscar rushed back in, dragging Ms. O behind him by the arm. He was in the middle of a frantic explanation. "...and when they showed it to me, I realized Eighteen's disappearance was recent enough that I could scan the cabinets for more accurate signs of odd activity. And according to the scanner, Oscarbot Eighteen _is_ the three cabinets of goo!"

Olive, Otto, and Ms. O gasped. "Then that means..." Ms. O began.

"My theory is confirmed," Oscar finished. "Whoever or whatever is behind the disappearances has been turning the people into the odd objects we've found."

Ms. O's face went white. "And now that one of the Oscarbots is gone—"

She was interrupted by a shout from behind. The foursome whirled around to find Octavia skidding to a halt in front of them. "Ms. O! I went to deliver that assignment to Agent Obi like you asked, but I couldn't find him in the ball pit anywhere! Then there was this weird orangey-white flash of light from somewhere in the balls, so I went to go check it out. What I found was this—" and she held up a teapot with the word "bingo" printed on the side.

"Lemme see that," Oscar said. Hooking on the scanner, he began scanning the teapot and watched the screen for a reading. Sure enough, below the blueprint diagram of the bingo teapot, the name "AGENT OBI" popped up.

Slowly, the five agents looked at one another. In that moment they all knew that no one was safe any longer. Whatever the cause of these disappearances was, it had to be figured out. Now.

And Ms. O said so. "Oscar, get all your scientists together and round up all the odd objects. You three, search Odd Squad Headquarters. If someone's behind this, they may still be here. Now _GO! GO LIKE THE WIND!_ "

As the agents scattered once again, Ms. O whipped out a tablet and punched in the command for Code Emerald, the intruder alert. As the green lights began to flash and a siren sounded, she sank into the lab swivel chair and rested her chin in her hands. "I'm _really_ getting too young for this..." she murmured wearily under her breath.

* * *

Over the next few hours, Olive, Otto, Octavia, and all the other agents ransacked headquarters to find this mysterious figure. They checked every hallway, looked in every door and room, and searched any possible place where an intruder could hide. Otto was reminded of the time when he and Olive competed with Oren and Olaf to find the Blob. Except back then they knew what they were looking for, and potential disappearances weren't at stake.

What creeped Otto out was that in every corridor he and Olive ran down, there seemed to be someone following them. A shadow here, a flash of orange there. It was very unnerving. Yet every time Otto blinked or tried to get a better look, whatever-it-was was gone. So he figured it was his imagination, and didn't say anything to Olive about it.

Until they rounded a corner and Olive tripped over a metal spike.

"OW!" Olive cried out, clutching her foot. "What in—um, Otto…?"

Otto looked down at what Olive had tripped on. It looked like a section of a black wrought-iron fence. There was a latch on one side of it, meaning the object was…

"A wrought-iron gate?" Olive cocked her head. "What's _this_ doing here?"

"Weird," Otto muttered. "I could swear I saw an orange flash down here five seconds ago."

Before Olive could reply, Agent Orchid suddenly came running down the hall from the other direction. "Have you seen Ori?" she panted. "We were searching together, and then he ran off! I think he came down here..." she trailed off as she noticed the gate on the floor.

And that's when it hit Otto. "You don't think…?"

Olive nodded grimly. "Yep. I do." She bent down and took hold of one side of the gate. "Orchid, wanna give me a hand? We need to take this back to the lab. It might be Ori."

Unperturbed as always, Orchid waved Olive away. "I'll take care of it," she said, and she grabbed the entire gate by herself, hefted it over one shoulder, and marched off toward the lab.

Otto stared after her. "Man, she's strong!"

"Never underestimate Orchid," Olive chuckled. Then her face grew serious again. "Now, come on, partner! Whoever did this can't be too far away. Let's go!"

But even so, there was still no sign of the figure. Olive and Otto kept searching, and eventually made their way to the Odd Squad warehouse, where they found Octavia searching behind various crates stacked against the walls. "Hi, Olive! Hi, Otto! Can you help?" she called.

"Sure thing!" Olive called back. "What do you need us to do?"

"I'm searching behind the crates stacked against the south wall, but I need someone to search behind the crates on the north wall. Can you do that, please?"

"We're on it!" Otto answered. He and Olive dashed over to the crates stacked against the north wall and began searching around, behind, and even inside every single one. But no luck. Olive and Otto were nearing the end of the line of crates when suddenly they heard a new voice shout, " _Octavia! ! !_ "

"Oh, no," Olive whispered, instantly recognizing the voice. "Come on!" Grabbing Otto's hand, she hurriedly dragged him over to the other side of the warehouse and through the stacks of crates on the south wall. "Octavia?" she called out. "Octavia, are you there? Octav— _oof!_ "

Otto bumped into Olive from behind. Looking over her shoulder to see what had stopped her, he spotted a metal tin, seemingly floating in midair.

Except it wasn't. "I watched the whole thing happen," moaned the voice of Agent Oz, Octavia's invisible partner. "She went to open a crate to look inside, and I heard her say, 'Oh, look! It's—' and then there was this flash of orangey-white light that zapped Octavia, and then she disappeared, a-and all that was left behind w-was this..."

The metal tin bobbed up higher in the air. Olive took it from him and examined it. The tin was painted red, and on the lid was a picture of a taco alongside the image of a spiky, bushy plant. It seemed to her that the latter was an agave plant.

Olive shook her head. "That's it. I've had enough of this. Oz, bring what's left of Octavia." She turned to Otto. "We're all going to the Math Room."

 **A/N About time they went to Math Room! XD Next chapter you get to hear about my second OC, but he won't come in the story until the last few chapters. Reviews still appreciated, and see you all on the next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Phew! Four weeks of summer camps are finally OVER! Now I get to focus more on this, yay! Lots of important stuff coming up, including the first mention of my second OC in _this_ chapter. There's only about three more chapters left and then this story will be complete! Speaking of which, the results and answers for the Contest were posted earlier this week, and the three fanfics offered as prizes will be the next stories to come. So yeah, busy busy. **

**One other thing: I was reading through some of the _Odd Squad_ crossover fics, and there was one that crosses over with _Wonder Woman_ , and it is LEGIT! The author, Flying Saucers, is such a funny and amazing writer, and his story reflects that so well. But since crossovers don't normally get as much attention as normal fics, I highly recommend all of my readers go find the _Odd Squad / Wonder Woman_ story and read/review it. Trust me, it'll be worth your time!**

 **But for now, enjoy this chapter :D**

Chapter 7

Three spirals of paper bathed in red light appeared on the visiting platform of the Math Room, then faded away to reveal the dizzy-looking trio of Olive, Otto, and a floating red metal tin.

"Greetings, agents!" Math Room welcomed them, cheerful as always.

"Hi, Math Room," Olive replied as the three of them made their way to the railing. "We need your help. Can you show us a picture of each of the odd objects we've found so far?"

Math Room set to work. "Generating paraphernalia," she said as several of her paper figures unfolded themselves and sketched out all of the objects, from the toll card and the feathers-filled toy ship to the wrought-iron gate and the red metal tin.

Olive, Otto, and Oz scrutinized the images. "I don't get it," Oz mused. "What are we missing here? There's gotta be something they all have in common."

"Well, I'm not even going to try to make a chart here," Olive said. "I don't see any similarities at all. What about a timeline? Math Room, can you put these on a timeline?"

"Generating chronological order," came the reply. Math Room spat out mini paper figures who unfolded themselves and created a timeline. The images of the objects arranged themselves in the order of which they had appeared, from Lord Rectangle's toll card on Thursday night to Ori's wrought-iron gate and Octavia's metal tin today, Monday evening. But the times at which every object appeared were completely random and all over the place.

"No pattern there," Olive sighed. She turned to Otto. "What do you think, partner?"

Otto had been silent up until now, deep in thought. Now he spoke, slowly and thoughtfully. "Well, I agree they all have something in common. But I'm wondering if we're looking in the wrong places to find out what." He turned to Math Room. "I have an idea. Instead of pictures, would you write out a list of all the odd objects, Math Room?"

What happened next caught Otto completely off guard. For the first time ever in his Odd Squad career, Math Room folded all her paper figures shut and refused to answer him. Shocked, Otto looked back and forth between Olive and Oz. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked worriedly.

Olive shrugged, also in shock. Oz made a noise that sounded like, "I dunno."

"It's not your fault, Agent Otto," Math Room finally said. She sounded a little sheepish. "I'm sorry. It's just that...I can't really do that."

All three agents' eyebrows shot up (including Oz's, though no one could see them). "Explain," Olive said.

She did. "I'm the Math Room. As in _Math_ Room. I'm programmed to help agents solve their cases _mathematically_. Not...well, not in the way Otto's asking."

"So that's it?" Oz protested, holding up the red tin. "My partner's stuck like this _forever?_ "

"Whoa, whoa," Math Room stopped him. "I didn't say that. I just said _I_ can't help you. But I think I know someone who can."

"Who?" Otto asked.

"His name is Carlos," came the reply. "Go ask Ms. O how to contact him, and tell her I told you to. He should be able to help you solve the case. I hope."

"Well, that's a chance I'm willing to take," Olive declared. Otto and Oz murmured their agreement. After thanking Math Room, the three agents stepped back, gave their badges a quarter-turn, and spun away in three spirals of paper and red light.

When the paper and light cleared, Olive, Otto, and Oz found themselves standing in the darkened center of Odd Squad Headquarters. "Aaaaaand everyone's already gone home," Olive remarked dryly. "Great. Just great."

"S'okay, partner," Otto reassured her. "We'll just ask Ms. O tomorrow. Now c'mon, let's all go home."

Olive was reluctant to follow. There could be more disappearances between now and tomorrow morning, and the sooner they solved this case, the better. But Otto was right. There wasn't anything more they could do for now, and they all really needed the sleep. The question of Carlos would just have to wait until the morning.

But as they would find out when morning came, Ms. O had other ideas. When Olive and Otto popped out of the tubes that morning, no redhead maintenance agent sat at the desk. Instead, the two agents found themselves face-to-face with a Tiggle.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Olive demanded.

The Tiggle didn't look up from the desk. "Subbing in. Ms. O's holding an urgent meeting with all the agents at Odd Squad and I—" but Olive and Otto were already hurrying away.

In the central room of headquarters, all agents from every department were gathered together. Ms. O was in the middle of giving a speech from her place at the top of the stairs. "...has gotten more serious. Yesterday, five of our agents and one robot were transformed into odd objects, and we don't know how to transform them back. Furthermore, we know none of the villains are behind it because they've been attacked, too. So here's the assignment for all of you today: I don't want a _single_ agent going _anywhere_ or doing _anything_ unless there's another agent with you _at all times_. Does everyone understand?"

There were nods and murmurs of agreement from the crowd of agents below. Sensing her speech was nearly done, Olive and Otto started up the stairs to tell her what Math Room said.

"Meanwhile," Ms. O went on, "I will now be leaving for a special visit to Mr. O's squad in the next town over, so I'll be gone the whole day."

Olive and Otto stopped in their tracks. _Seriously?!_ they thought in unison.

"That's why I'll be leaving Olive, Otto, and Oscar to watch my office. If anyone needs anything, talk to them. As for the rest of you, continue on with your daily duties. Stay safe, agents."

While the other agents below went back to work, Olive and Otto ran after their boss. "Ms. O, wait!" Olive called after her.

"Not now, you two," Ms. O answered over her shoulder as she unlocked her secret tube system. "I have important business to attend to, and so do you."

"But we found out that—" Otto began, but Ms. O wasn't listening. Climbing into the tube, she crouched down, squished into a purple ball, and zoomed out of sight.

Olive threw up her arms in exasperation. " _Now_ what?"

"Now we watch her office and hope for the best," Oscar answered as he entered through the doorway, carrying the scanner over one shoulder. Setting it down, he sat on the sofa. "It's okay, Olive, I know how you feel. There's not much else _I_ can do right now, either, except scan any more odd objects that show up. So all we can do is sit here and wait."

Otto didn't like that one bit. He and Olive both knew that while no progress was being made on this case, they, Odd Squad, and everyone in town were all sitting ducks for whoever was behind this. And until they found out who Carlos was, they were helpless to stop it. But like it or not, Oscar was right. Shrugging in resignation, Olive and Otto sat down beside him. And waited.

* * *

Despite Ms. O's precautions, more people went missing that day in her absence. One hour after the three agents sat down to wait, Dr. O and Odell were giving a Centigurp its yearly virus shot, but the furry little beast wriggled away and bounced out of the Medical Room. Odell quickly ran after it, but when he got back with the Centigurp, Dr. O was nowhere in sight. Sitting on the sick bed was a toy airplane with a stuffed goat as its rider. Then, after lunch, two agents brought in a red lanyard with the word "legitimate" written down the sides. Oscar's scan proved the lanyard to be none other than Lady Triangle, which meant that whoever was behind this was still at work in the community as well. Late in the afternoon, a pair of bongo drums with sink faucets sticking out the top was brought in by a distraught Agent Obfuscolina, and it was assumed that the odd drums were Obfusco. Neither Olive, nor Otto, nor Oscar felt like asking Obfuscolina how exactly this had happened. They remembered the Mole People dinner experience all too well.

Meanwhile, the figure was elated at their success so far. Mariana Mag and her transformed fingers had been the key to revealing the client entrance to Odd Squad Headquarters. Now the plan was progressing perfectly and, with a third of its force gone and counting, Odd Squad would soon be brought to its knees. Furthermore, the figure had found the right squad. That one in the last town was just as self-righteous and stuck-up as any other, but it wasn't the one that the figure had wanted vengeance upon. Yet Mariana Mag's discovery of Ms. O had confirmed it: this was the very same Odd Squad—and the very same Ms. O—that had wronged the figure so many years ago. And beginning tomorrow, the time was drawing near when the final blow would be struck.

Down in their lair, the figure stood motionless in the center of the dark room, a wraith hidden among the shadows. Illuminated by the single lightbulb was a life-size cardboard cutout of Ms. O, retrieved by Mariana Mag from Odd Squad Headquarters today as a gift in exchange for the whale crackers. Fingering the gadget in the center of the belt, the figure typed a random jumble of letters on the keyboard and pressed 'Enter'. As the laser powered up, the figure grinned wickedly. "I am," they whispered, their voice growing louder with every word. "I _am_. I _am_ what I make! _I AM A—! ! !_ "

The rest was drowned out as a white-hot orange-tinged beam shot out and blasted the cutout of Ms. O into millions of papery fragments.

 **A/N My sister wanted me to point this out in case anyone was confused, but typing a random jumble of letters into the belt keyboard is basically the command for 'destroy'. As for how the gadget transforms people into strange objects, you'll have to wait until Chapter 9 to find that one out...**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N This is semi-sentimental, but today in my doc manager is the day that my last surviving chapter document from "Olive's Last Partner" officially expired. It's the end of an era... :(  
Okay, enough of that stuff. I'm leaving for a two-week family reunion tomorrow in Missouri, so the odds of me posting Chapter 9 in that time are not too good. But I'll do my best!  
Once again, I highly recommend you look up the Odd Squad / Wonder Woman crossover and read it. Flying Saucers is an amazing writer, and his story is ten times better than anything I could come up with. (FS, if you're reading this, know that I'm not joking!) Plus you can never go wrong with Wonder Woman ;)  
But while you're here, happy reading!**

Chapter 8

The next day, Olive was late to work.

Again.

Except this time she never showed up at all.

"Ms. O, can't we just wait a _little_ while longer?" Otto begged as all the agents began to line up in the tube lobby to leave. "She'll be here soon, I'm sure of it!"

"Are you?" Ms. O gave him a long, hard look.

Otto faltered. "No," he admitted. "I'm not. I'm worried she's disappeared, too." He ran his hands through his hair and exhaled. "But can't we at least send someone to go look for her?"

Ms. O shook her head. "I would, Otto, but all my agents are looking forward to this trip to the aquarium. I don't want to take that away from anyone. Plus a trip to the aquarium will keep everyone together and safe. And frankly, we're all sick of this case by now." Seeing the disbelieving look on Otto's face, Ms. O softened. "Tell you what. Why don't you go look for her yourself? Take Oscar with you and go to her house. Then meet us at the aquarium. Deal?"

Otto sighed. "Deal," he agreed. Trying to be hopeful, he went to find Oscar. Little did Otto know that Ms. O was just as worried as he was—if only she could afford to show it.

Not long after, Otto found himself ringing the doorbell to Olive's house, with Oscar standing a little ways behind him. Adding to his concern for Olive, Otto was also nervous because he hadn't met her parents yet. Odd Squad had a "don't ask, don't tell" policy concerning agents' parents, so Otto didn't know a thing about Olive's home life. What would her family be like? Would they be warm and welcoming, or cold and disdainful?

But as it turned out, Otto didn't have to worry about that. After ringing the doorbell several times, it was clear that no one was coming to answer the door. "Nobody's home," Otto said to Oscar over his shoulder. "What do we do now?"

There was no reply. Otto turned and was just in time to see Oscar hop off the front porch and run around to the side of the house. "Where are you going?" he called, hurrying after him. He followed Oscar and rounded the corner to find the scientist kneeling next to a drainpipe running down the length of the house from a gutter at the top. But what caught Otto's eye was the full-size stainless steel kitchen oven propped against the house wall. Even stranger, the word "LEGIT" was scrawled across the oven door.

Oscar looked up. "I came to Olive's house once before," he explained, "and this drainpipe is where her entrance to the tubes is." Standing up, he bit his lip and nodded toward the oven. "I could pull out the scanner to make sure, but...I'm guessing she got zapped on her way to work."

Otto exhaled slowly. _Crud. Crud crud crud._ He felt his heart drop to his stomach and his lungs go into overdrive. No matter how hard he had wished it wasn't true, it was. _It's the booby-trapped floor all over again,_ Otto thought with a moan. They'd stepped on the wrong square by not finding a way to Carlos, whoever he was. So Olive had been taken. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Reeling and lost in a panicky dreamlike state, Otto dimly became aware of Oscar gripping his shoulders and shouting something in his face. "...Otto…! ...Otto…! ...OTTO!"

He snapped his head up. "Huh? What?"

"Otto, I can't have you breaking down like this!" Oscar said. "Not when we've got work to do! We need to get Olive back to headquarters with the other missing people, then we have to find Ms. O at the aquarium before she starts to worry about us. It's what...it's what Olive would've wanted."

With an effort, Otto forced himself to nod. "Okay. You're right." He rubbed his eyes. "I'm good now. I'm good. Let's go."

Oscar didn't bother to tell him that that was Olive's catchphrase.

* * *

Otto tried to enjoy himself at the aquarium.

He really did.

But he couldn't get the thought of Olive out of his mind. As he and Oscar had carried the oven back to HQ, he'd looked down at the burners on the stove and could swear he saw his partner's face staring back at him. "Don't worry, partner," he'd whispered. "We'll get to the bottom of this. I swear."

Now, Otto wandered the halls of the aquarium, watching the seahorses and seaturtles and oodles of fish through the glass. Oscar, close at his heels, would occasionally imitate a piranha face or try to communicate with the chattering dolphins in an attempt to cheer Otto up. It worked to an extent, and Otto's gloomy attitude slowly faded as he started admiring the sea lions or chuckling at the antics of the penguins. He even waved at Oren and Olaf marveling at the swordfish. And of course, he oohed and ahhed at the giant squid he'd so been looking forward to seeing.

But the real star of the aquarium was Diesel. As Otto and Oscar approached the shark tanks, they saw dozens of Odd Squad agents crowded up against the glass, all of them watching Diesel as he did somersaults in the water, tossed a ball around, and caught forty-five fish in as many seconds.

Even Ms. O was enthralled. "Wow, did you see that?!" she exclaimed as Otto and Oscar joined her. "Such an odd shark! But super cool!" She turned to find the two agents gaping at her, taken aback by the absence of her normal stern demeanor. At once, Ms. O cleared her throat and regained her composure. "Good to see you two back safe. What's the update on Olive?"

Oscar related the events of that morning. As the story drew to a close, Ms. O's stern expression didn't change, but her shoulders had a slight slump to them. "That's what I was afraid of," she admitted. "To be honest, I don't know how much more of this Odd Squad can take. We're still nowhere close to solving this case, and—"

Suddenly, Otto saw his chance. "Hold on a minute. Two nights ago, Olive and I went to the Math Room to see if she could help us out. And get this: she said she didn't know how to."

" _What?!_ " Ms. O and Oscar said in unison.

"I know! Olive and I tried to tell you yesterday, but you left before we could. Anyways, Math Room told us she knew someone else who could help. Somebody called Carlos…?"

Ms. O froze and went completely tense. Her eyes narrowed. "Carlos? But why—"

"Who's Carlos?"

All three whirled around to find Mariana Mag standing behind them, head cocked quizzically. Quickly they all began speaking at the same time. "Um, nobody!" "Nothing you need to worry about!" "You wouldn't know him." "We don't _really_ know him either—"

Mariana Mag nodded, her face oddly blank. "I see. Well, while I'm here, have you all been enjoying your visit?"

Again, the three agents all started talking at the same time, each reassuring her that yes, of course they were having fun, they'd never had more fun in their lives, wasn't it obvious?

The aquarium owner didn't look convinced.

"We're sorry," Oscar finally said. "It's been a rough week with so many of our agents and townspeople disappearing. The aquarium's amazing, really. We're just a little preoccupied, that's all."

"Ah, yes." Mariana Mag tutted. "Terrible thing, these disappearances. I hope you figure out the cause of them soon."

"I hope so, too," Ms. O said. "But if we lose any more agents—"

" _POTATO!_ "

At that moment, a frightened-looking Agent Olaf arrived in their midst, clutching an orange butterfly net. He threw his head back and let out a long, mournful howl.

"What's the matter, Agent Olaf?" Ms. O asked.

Whimpering, Olaf held up the net and pointed at it. "Partner," he whispered.

Immediately Oscar whipped out his scanner, hooked it on, and scanned the butterfly net. A blueprint diagram of the net popped up, and below it the words, "AGENT OREN".

Otto gasped. "But that's impossible! There's people everywhere, and I just saw him at the swordfish tank with Olaf not five minutes ago!"

"Then whoever's behind this," Oscar muttered thoughtfully, "should still be here..."

For a moment, they all looked at one another as this new development sank in. Then Olaf noticed Mariana Mag for the first time, and Otto could swear that his face turned purple. " _Boooooo!_ " Olaf yelled, jabbing a finger at her.

Mariana Mag drew in a sharp breath. She seemed suddenly nervous. "Wha—? But I—I don't understand, I—"

"I'm Olaf!" he cut her off angrily. " _I'm Olaf!_ "

"Agent Olaf, that is _enough!_ " Ms. O shouted. "I won't have you being rude to our hostess." Then she softened. "Why don't you take Oren back to the lab at headquarters? He should be put with the others."

Olaf's bottom lip jutted out in a pouty face. Nevertheless, he took the orange net and, with one last glare at Mariana Mag, shuffled away.

After he was gone, Oscar glanced back at the aquarium owner. "What was _that_ all about?"

Mariana Mag shrugged. "I'm sorry, but I have no idea—"

"Wait, wait, stop!"

Two pairs of brown eyes and one pair of green eyes fell on Otto, who'd suddenly interjected and raised his hands for silence. Slowly, he turned his head toward Mariana Mag and gave her a suspicious look. "Yes, you _do_ have an idea. Every time one of our agents disappeared," he explained, "you were always there. Monday afternoon, when Oscarbot Eighteen and several other agents disappeared, you had just left the lab after getting your fingers fixed. Yesterday morning, when Dr. O and Obfusco went missing, you came by the office to pick up Ms. O's gift for you. And today, we've all been at _your_ aquarium."

Otto paused and gave her a long, hard look. The aquarium owner was wide-eyed and pale, and she fidgeted uncomfortably under Otto's gaze. "Speaking of the F.T.S. Aquarium," he continued, pacing in a slow circle around her, "Olive did a little research yesterday after you left. And the French Toddler's Sphere, the company that supposedly sponsors your aquarium, doesn't exist."

Oscar and Ms. O looked shocked, but they hung onto Otto's every word. Over the course of his speech, they began to mirror his suspicious gaze. Mariana Mag's fidgeting turned to squirming, yet still Otto went on circling and accusing her. "But the aquarium itself is legitimate enough. We've all seen the animals, and I've seen the few dozen employees you mentioned before. So what company _does_ sponsor your aquarium, Mariana Mag? Or is there some other reason you changed your own name? Furthermore, when Olive and I came to meet you last Thursday, you mentioned moving your facility from another town because of certain 'unfortunate events'. And when Ms. O got back from her business trip last night, she told us—Ms. O, would you do the honors and repeat what you said?"

Ms. O smiled thinly. "I told you that Mr. O remembered a case from last fall about an aquarium. There was a big scandal involving one of the employees. It ruined the reputation of the owner, who was forced to close the business and leave town."

"Exactly." Otto stopped circling, and turned so he was face-to-face with the aquarium owner. "What are you hiding, Mariana Mag? Or, more importantly, _who_ might you be hiding?"

The aquarium owner said nothing. She looked like a spooked rabbit ready to bolt. Her face was white, beads of sweat had formed on her brow, and her breathing had quickened. Finally she stammered, "I-I-I d-don't know what you're t-talking about. I—that was all—why, this is ridiculous! I never—I mean, it's not...I have to go." With that, she dashed over to a door by Diesel's tank marked _Authorized Access Only_ and was gone.

Otto started and rubbed his eyes. Mariana Mag's wetsuit was blue and yellow. Her fanny pack's thick strapped belt was black. So why had he seen a flash of orange color?

Or was it _red?_

He shook his head to clear it. Probably just her hair. His accusation had left him imagining things.

Ms. O did not look happy. "She's hiding something, that's for sure. I need to see Agent Owen and Agent O'Malley. We need all available security and maintenance staff to search this aquarium."

As the boss stalked off, Otto and Oscar looked at each other. "Wow. That was really impressive, Otto!" Oscar said with a grin.

Otto didn't return the sentiment. He looked tired and shaky. "It should've been Olive that said all that," he insisted. "Not me. She came up with most of that yesterday while we were watching the office." Otto's gaze fell on the door that Mariana Mag had exited through. "She's a nice person. Mariana Mag, I mean. She really is. And she loves her animals so much." He sighed. "Whoever got her tangled up in this case, I hope they don't hurt her again."

* * *

Mariana Mag sat in her office, head buried in her hands.

 _I can't believe it,_ she moaned to herself. _They figured it out. After all that work to keep this a secret, they figured it out. And now the Odd Squad is searching my aquarium, and there's nothing I can do about it._ It was pure luck that Odd Squad wasn't required to get a warrant to search a place. Over a century ago, the courts ruled in the internationally-famous case _Odd Squad vs. Society_ that "whereas Odd Squad agents 1) already require the ability to perform a search when investigating any odd problem, such is not regarded as a violation of the security of the people; 2) are not involved in law enforcement and thus cannot arrest civilians; and 3) are only children and not adults; therefore, said Odd Squad agents may not be subject to the issuing of warrants upon probable cause." **A/N** **#nailedit! ;)**

But she knew they wouldn't find anything or anyone, so that wasn't what bothered her the most. In her mind she replayed Otto's accusation. _His partner wasn't here today, of course. Never really cared for her, she was too cold and aloof. Otto, on the other hand, I thought he was a nice kid. That I wouldn't have to worry about him. And I never wanted him hurt, never. But...he saw right through the F.T.S., and right through me. Thanks to him, they figured it out..._

Suddenly she sat up straighter. _Hold on. No, they haven't figured_ all _of it out yet. There's still a chance—_ but then she slumped back in her seat again as she remembered what alerted her to their conversation in the first place.

 _Carlos._

 _They'll go to Carlos next._

 _Then they_ will _figure all of it out._

 _But...Carlos wouldn't betray me, would he? Not after all I did for him back before—_

Before. Mariana Mag clenched her fists at the thought of before. Before the year 1995. Before her life was changed forever.

She sighed and got up. Leaving the office, she headed down the hall and through the door to the top of Diesel's tank. As she sat on the edge and let her feet dangle in the water, Diesel swam up to her and rested his head in her lap. Mariana Mag stroked his thick and slick dolphin-shark skin fondly. "What on earth did I get myself into, Diesel?" she murmured to him, eyes brimming with tears. "If this goes on any longer, I could lose the aquarium for good this time. And I'd lose you, too." As involved with the disappearances and odd objects as she was, the aquarium owner couldn't bear the thought of parting with her beloved pets. Even if the F.T.S. was a cover, her family history in the aquarium business was real enough. She'd worked hard to earn the right of ownership...and her father's trust. "He didn't think I could do it," she told Diesel. "Not after I was expelled from—"

She stopped. It was true she'd worked long and hard to take over the family business. But she'd been working longer and harder for something else…

 _No more._

Mariana Mag set her jaw. Giving Diesel a final pat on the back, she reached into her fanny pack and tossed him a fish. While the dolphin-shark was occupied, she stood up and walked slowly back to her office. _I'll never give up my career,_ she resolved, _but this is going to end._

 _I will end this. Tonight._

 _Forever._

 **A/N Threw that court case in there for fun XD. So, with only three chapters left after this one, I'll give you a rough outline of how the story will wrap up. In this chapter, of course, you got an important clue as for what exactly Mariana Mag has to do with the story. In the next one, you'll meet Carlos and figure out the cause of the disappearances. In Chapter 10 you'll meet the figure and learn their backstory, as well as watch the final showdown. And Chapter 11 is where everything will be resolved and wrap up nicely with a big red bow on top. :) So, yeah. See you all on the big reveal!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Couple announcements. First, thanks for all the reviews from everyone! I really don't deserve you guys :D Second, I hate to do this to you all, but my family vacation is about to get real hectic starting tomorrow, and the next chapter probably won't be up for a couple weeks. :( Third, speaking of Chapter 10, I've started working on it already, and it's getting to be so loooooong that I might split it up into two chapters, bringing the total number of chaps to 12. Haven't decided what to do yet, since splitting them up would be bad for keeping the action going...  
Anyhow, the big reveal is finally here! Below, you will finally find out why I chose the title and cover photo for this story that I did. ;) Enjoy, and please no busting holes in your bedroom walls! *coughJoshcough***

Chapter 9

"You wanted to see me, agents?"

"Yes, Ms. O," Otto answered as he and Oscar took their seats by Ms. O's desk. "Sorry we had to keep you after hours."

"It's alright," Ms. O assured him. "Now, what is it you needed?"

"Well, before we get to that," Oscar began, "first could you fill us in on the aquarium search?"

Ms. O raised an eyebrow, but obliged them. "We didn't find anything," she said flatly. "Mr. O told me yesterday that the villain uses a gadget hooked onto a belt to turn people into odd objects. I had every available agent on the maintenance and security staff ransack the entire building and interrogate every employee to find the villain and their belt gadget. And. We. Found. _Nothing!_ " She pounded her desk in frustration. "And not even Mr. O knows how that belt gadget works. His agents destroyed it to defeat the villain before, but there's still tons of missing people in that town because they couldn't change them back! If we don't figure this out soon—"

"Ms. O?"

She looked up at Otto. "What is it?" she groaned.

"That's what we wanted to see you about," he explained calmly. "Math Room said that Carlos could help us solve this case, but we don't know who he is or where to find him. She told us we need to ask you." Otto bit his lip. "Olive and I tried to ask you yesterday, and now she's gone. The least you could do is tell Oscar and me."

It was nearly a full minute before Ms. O answered. "Fine," she finally said. "Here goes...

"You remember that I was the one who first created the Math Room with Yucks Shmumber, back before I was an agent. After I joined Odd Squad, I found myself going to my Math Room more and more, and so did other agents, until somehow, she gradually got a consciousness. She even named herself Carol, though she didn't tell me that until the day I became Ms. O. What I _didn't_ know is that Carol had also created herself a twin brother."

Otto and Oscar gaped at her.

"I know, I thought the same thing!" Ms. O said in agreement. "I didn't find out until my fortieth year on the squad. It was one hundred years ago in 1915, right in the middle of the Great War. Unlike with World War II, Odd Squad all over the world stayed neutral. We kids didn't see the point of the whole war, so we didn't take sides. But with communications restricted, we couldn't contact the squads from countries in the Central Powers unless we wrote in code. So one day, we got a coded message from a squad in Germany—except it wasn't a number code, it was a word code."

"Then Carlos is like a Language Room?" Oscar realized.

"Exactly. That was the first time Carol had told anyone on Odd Squad about her twin brother. O'Donahue and I were put in charge of decoding the message, so we went to see Carol for help, and that's when she told us about Carlos and how to get to him. So we did that, and sure enough, Carlos helped us crack the code. He was very helpful during the war for every message we got and sent. Same for World War II."

The two boys were fascinated. Of course they'd known Ms. O was over a hundred years old, but neither of them had thought about her living through both World Wars. "So...what happened?" Otto asked.

"Nothing, that's what," Ms. O sighed. "After the World Wars were over, we didn't have many odd cases involving language manipulation anymore. There was one agent in my early years as Ms. O who would take care of the occasional language case and go visit Carlos, but she's long gone now. I guess it didn't help that Carlos and I never really liked each other."

"Why?" Otto and Oscar asked at the same time.

Ms. O pressed her lips together. "To tell you the truth, I don't trust words. Never have. Probably it's because of what happened with Olga, when she stole from my fruit stand and tried to trick O'Donahue by saying it had nothing to do with numbers. I trust math because numbers will never lie. That's why I like Carol, because I know she'll always tell the truth. But words can lie to you. They can be manipulated and mixed around so they try to trick you. They'll even make numbers look wrong. I guess Carlos sensed that I thought that, and he didn't like helping me out." She let out a short laugh. "Then again, I _was_ pretty rude to him."

The three were silent for a minute. Otto was still taking it all in. _Who would've thought that Math Room—Carol—had a twin brother? And if he's in charge of words, then what does that mean for solving this case…?_ "So, will we be able to go see him?" Otto wanted to know.

Ms. O didn't answer right away. When she did, it wasn't willingly. "Yes," she admitted. "After that one agent left twenty years ago, no one's been back there. I don't know how Carlos will react to visitors, but...yes, you can go. You'll have to, if that's what Carol says it'll take to solve this case."

"But how will we get there?" Oscar wondered.

"Same way you go to the Math Room," Ms. O told them. "Just twist your badges in the opposite direction."

* * *

Neither Otto nor Oscar knew exactly what to expect when the red and green spirals of paper and light faded. A world identical to the Math Room seemed most likely, just with letters written on the walls instead of numbers. So it came as a shock to both of them when their lights disappeared and everything was pitch black.

"Um...hello?" Otto called out, his voice echoing in the emptiness. "Carlos? Are you there?"

Suddenly the viewing platform lit up. The two agents jumped in shock and looked down at it. It looked identical to the viewing platform in the Math Room, same hexagon shape and crayon-colored look, but there was one major difference.

It was _turquoise_.

At that moment they heard a faint humming noise, and looked up and around. Slowly, the familiar graph paper origami figures brightened into visibility, but they too looked very different. Math Room's all had four sections with symbols and colors representing four of Odd Squad's departments—a red hexagon, a green triangle, a blue diamond, and a yellow circle. But while the symbols were the same, the colors were in the negative: a turquoise hexagon, a violet triangle, an orange diamond, and an indigo circle. As the origami figures lit up, the spherical paper wall also brightened from black to chocolate brown. Come to think of it, compared to the Math Room, now even the _wall_ was colored in the negative, too.

Then a melancholy voice spoke. "You are...agents? And you have come to see _me?_ "

"Uh, yes!" Oscar answered, moving to the railing as Otto followed. "I'm Oscar, and this is Otto. We, um, need your help on a case. Your twin sister Carol sent us."

"Oh, what joy!" Carlos drawled. His voice still sounded incredibly miserable, like a ghostlier version of Lord Rectangle's. "It has been many long years since I was visited by the Odd Squad. I thought I had been long forgotten…doomed to a destiny of wasting away into nothing but broken-up letters while my dear sister Carol thrived..."

Otto and Oscar exchanged glances. This guy was almost as bad as Olaf or Obfusco.

"...told myself that life is never fair, especially when one is a stack of papers used for naught," Carlos droned on. "Watching my colors darken and turn negative from lack of use, 'tis rather a sad sight to see me wither from my former state of glory—"

"Okay, we get it," Otto cut in, weirded out already. This would definitely explain why Ms. O didn't like him. "Now can you please help us with this case?"

"Oh, yes, of course, Agent Otto," Carlos assured him. "I'd quite forgotten. My apologies. Now, what is it you wanted me to do?"

Otto took a deep breath to calm his irritated nerves. "Please show us pictures of the missing people and the objects they were turned into."

"Generating images," came the melancholy reply. Just like his sister, Carlos unfolded his paper figures and quickly sketched out the people and objects, from Lord Rectangle with the green toll card, to Oscarbot Eighteen with the three goo-filled cabinets, to Olive with the "LEGIT" oven and Oren with the orange net, and everyone in between.

Remembering what happened in the Math Room, Otto then instructed, "Now write the names of the people and the objects below each picture."

A little more scribbling, and below each picture appeared their names. The one with Miss Baker caught Oscar's eye, as below her name it read, "Amber Skis". "Funny," he remarked. "Just before Oscarbot Eighteen disappeared, he made a note on his clipboard that the skis were specifically made of amber."

Otto was only half listening. He focused on each word and name, wondering how and why on earth they could possibly have anything to do with the missing people and odd objects. "Math Room sent us here for a reason," he mused. "The words and names have _something_ to do with this case, I can feel it. Carlos?"

"I agree, Agent Otto," the Language Room replied, somewhat unhelpfully.

"But...what?" Otto groaned and gazed at the picture of Olive. He couldn't let his partner down now, not when they were so close to figuring it out. Yet he felt more helpless than ever…

"I don't get this!" Oscar suddenly burst out in frustration. "We've spent _four whole days_ trying to solve this case, and no matter what we do or find out, we get _nowhere!_ It's all mixed up whatever we—"

"Hold on." Otto looked up sharply. "Say that again."

"What? That it's all mixed up?"

 _All mixed up…_ Otto thought. _All mixed up… All mixed—_

 _Oh._

 _Oh._

 _Oh my God._

 _Oh my God, that's IT!_

Otto's mind flashed back to Olive's puzzle book. The two problems she had shown him: how to unscramble words for things that hop, how many words could be made out of Scientific Method. And he had solved them both.

 _Why didn't I see the pattern before?_

"I think I figured it out!" he exclaimed. "Carlos, isolate the name 'Lord Rectangle' and the words 'green toll card'."

"Isolating." The other images disappeared.

"Now unscramble the words 'green toll card'."

"Unscrambling." The letters jumbled up into A-C-D-E-E-G-L-L-N-O-R-R-T.

"And rearrange them so they spell Lord Rectangle's name."

"Generating anagram." The letters shuffled around until, lo and behold, they formed L-O-R-D-R-E-C-T-A-N-G-L-E.

"Now do the same thing in reverse."

"Reversing anagram." Carlos took the original name and scrambled it around until the letters spelled G-R-E-E-N-T-O-L-L-C-A-R-D.

Otto could barely contain his excitement. "We'll try another. Carlos, isolate the name 'Miss Baker' and the words 'amber skis'."

Carlos did the same thing. Sure enough, M-I-S-S-B-A-K-E-R became A-B-E-I-K-M-R-S-S became A-M-B-E-R-S-K-I-S.

"Lemme try one!" Oscar said. "Carlos, isolate the name 'Oscarbot Eighteen' and the words 'three goo cabinets'."

As the two agents watched eagerly, O-S-C-A-R-B-O-T-E-I-G-H-T-E-E-N became A-B-C-E-E-E-G-H-I-N-O-O-R-S-T-T became T-H-R-E-E-G-O-O-C-A-B-I-N-E-T-S.

Otto and Oscar cheered and did happy dances. " _YES!_ " "We got it right!" "Woo-hoo!"

"So this whole time," Oscar chortled once they had calmed down a little, "the villain was just scrambling up everyone's names and turning them into whatever the letters spelled?"

"That is correct, Agent Oscar," Carlos said. "Those are called anagrams. You can create an anagram by rearranging the letters in one word to spell another."

"No _wonder_ we couldn't figure this case out!" Otto marveled. "Anagrams don't have _anything_ to do with numbers!"

"Yes," Carlos sighed wistfully. "Just like that one agent always told me."

Otto froze. "Who?"

"Oh, you wouldn't know her," he told them, his voice sounding its most miserable yet. "There was an Odd Squad agent who loved anagrams, and she would come visit me all the time. She was one of the few who did. But alas, she stopped coming nearly twenty years ago now. It's been so long, I can't even remember her name."

"Twenty years..." Oscar repeated softly. Then his brow furrowed. "What did Ms. O say about an agent who left the squad twenty years back?"

Otto thought for a moment. "Don't remember," he shrugged. "Call her, maybe? We should tell her what we figured out, anyhow."

Oscar already had his badge open and was dialing the number 58. She picked up on the first ring. "Go for O."

"Ms. O, we solved the case!" Oscar told her, and hurriedly relayed Otto's discovery.

Ms. O listened, and when she spoke after Oscar finished, she didn't sound excited. "Anagrams, huh? Not math?"

"Nope!" Oscar answered. "Guess Math Room was right to send us to Carlos!"

"Yeah..." There was a long pause.

Otto leaned in toward the badge phone to say his piece. "Carlos also told us about that agent you mentioned, the one who used to visit him but left twenty years ago. He said she loved anagrams. You think she's got anything to do with this?"

"That's what I'm wondering..." Suddenly there was a gasp on the other end. "Agent Ocean!"

" _Who?_ " Otto asked.

Oscar cocked his head. "Agent Ocean...I remember hearing something about her around the time I joined Odd Squad. But no one would tell me who she was."

"Well, I'm telling you now," Ms. O said, sounding worried. "She joined the squad the year after O'Donahue left. One of our best agents for almost ten years, until...she went rogue. She never liked math, and I disagreed with her on some of her methods for solving cases. One day she showed up to work with a gadget that would anagram things, and she ruined half of HQ with it. Had no choice but to fire her for causing oddness."

"Like with Odd Todd?" Otto wondered.

"Exactly like with Odd Todd." There was another pause, and Otto and Oscar could just picture Ms. O frowning. "But I don't remember what happened to her. I don't even know what her full name was. Maybe..." There was a jangling noise and the sound of creaking metal.

"That's her filing cabinet," Oscar whispered to the puzzled Otto.

"I've got a file on her in here somewhere," Ms. O explained. "It might have something that'll help us—yes, here it is!" There were sounds of paper rustling. "Agent Ocean. That's right, Ocean was her middle name. We used it for her agent ID because it started with O. Her full name is—"

Ms. O never finished her sentence.

Otto and Oscar heard the _bang_ of a door slamming open, and another noise that sounded like Ms. O jumping up from her chair. "Hey! What are you doing here—? Wait...but aren't you—hey, you're—WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT THING?!"

 _ZZZAP! ! !_

 _Click._ The line went dead.

Oscar dropped the badge phone and stared at Otto. "Oh no," he began to fret. "Oh no oh no oh no."

"They got her," Otto realized. "The villain. They anagrammed her." Slowly he turned to Carlos. "Could you—?"

"I'm already working on it." Carlos sketched out the letters A-G-E-N-T-O-P-R-A-H, rearranged them several times into various words, then finally came up with O-A-T-E-N-G-R-A-P-H.

"Oaten graph?" Oscar read aloud. "What is that, like, a graph made of oats?"

"I suppose," Carlos answered. "That's the kind of thing Agent Ocean would have created."

"Then it's her!" Otto concluded. "Whoever this Agent Ocean is, she's the one behind it." Suddenly he snapped his fingers as a lightbulb turned on in his head. "The French Toddlers' Sphere Aquarium. Why on earth would Mariana Mag call her aquarium that, unless—"

"Unless it was an anagram, and she's hiding Agent Ocean!" Oscar caught on. This time he was the one to turn to Carlos. "Write out the letters in French Toddlers' Sphere Aquarium. Now rearrange them."

"Generating anagram." The two agents watched as F-R-E-N-C-H-T-O-D-D-L-E-R-S-' -S-P-H-E-R-E-A-Q-U-A-R-I-U-M mixed around and eventually became M.-F-L-O-U-N-D-E-R-S-' -C-I-P-H-E-R-H-E-A-D-Q-U-A-R-T-E-R-S.

"M. Flounder's Cipher Headquarters," Otto read. "Of course! Anagrams are a kind of code, or cipher. So Agent Ocean is really M-something Ocean Flounder."

"Right," Oscar agreed. "But then what would the M stand for—?"

It was then that the strangest thing happened.

Otto and Oscar heard it at the same time. It was the fizzling sound of a paper spiral, signaling an agent's arrival in the Language Room. They glanced at each other. "But...we're the only ones that know about this," Oscar said, "other than Ms. O, and she's been anagrammed. So who…?"

Suddenly the fizzling turned to sputtering. The two agents craned their necks and squinted at the faint paper spiral forming at the top of the chocolate-brown ceiling. Slowly the spiral lit up and descended to the turquoise hexagon platform. But it was the light that was especially different. Instead of a single color, the spiral was _orange_ at the center, blue _and_ yellow in the middle, and _RED_ on the outside.

"What the—?" Oscar began.

A bright flash of orangey-white light and a _ZZZAP! ! !_ cut him off. Blinded by the flash, Otto shielded his eyes.

Silence.

Otto opened his eyes and glanced to his left, where Oscar had been standing just a second ago. Turning his gaze downward, he saw a basket full of orange-striped kittens.

A-G-E-N-T-O-S-C-A-R became A-A-C-E-G-N-O-R-S-T became O-R-A-N-G-E-C-A-T-S.

Then he heard a sickeningly familiar laugh.

Otto felt his soul sink to the bottom of his feet. _It can't be_ , he thought, crushed. _We trusted her. She would never._

But as he looked up in front of him and his mind started rearranging letters, he knew that of course it was true. It had been this whole time.

Mariana Mag.

M-A-R-I-A-N-A-M-A-G.

A-A-A-A-G-I-M-M-N-R.

I-A-M-A-N-A-G-R-A-M.

" _I Am Anagram! ! !_ "


	10. Chapter 10a

**A/N So I decided to split this chapter up due to length. This one will be 10a, the next one 10b, and the last one 11.  
** **Also, while it's on my mind, there's a pretty neat _Odd Squad_ forum on this site if anyone's interested. It's called "Odd Squad! The RP" and it was created by fellow fanfic writer MadlySane. There's different topics like Canons and RolePlays and OC Creations (I've posted in the latter one btw) and they're all pretty cool. I encourage you to look it up in FanFiction's forums and check it out!  
** **Finally, one last announcement: I know there's been a huge buzz about the plot being released for the final episode "O is Not for Over", but I'll say this right now, I don't want ANYONE telling me what it is. I want to be totally surprised when I watch it, whenever that may be. So please don't tell me anything, I will be upset if any of you do. :(  
Alright, I guess that's it. Now you can _finally_ find out who Mariana Mag really is. 10b should be up by Friday. Enjoy!**

Chapter 10a

 _"Hey, Ms. O!"_

 _Ms. O yelps and drops the case file. Agent Ori is standing right behind her, an innocent gap-tooth grin on his face. "Agent Ori, what are you doing here?" Ms. O demands._

 _Ori shrugs. "You haven't been out of your office all day," he points out. "I just wanted to know what you were doing." He cranes his neck over her shoulder to see the report and accompanying photographs scattered all over Ms. O's desk. "Cool! Was that the time I got turned into an iron gate?"_

 _Suppressing a growl, Ms. O nods. "Yes. It's the case with the anagrams that Orson called 'All Mixed Up!' I didn't have anything to do this afternoon, so I'm reading through it for fun."_

 _"Can I read it with you?"_

 _"Can you read it with me? Are you_ seriously _asking me that question?" Ms. O demands._

 _Ori doesn't bat an eyelid. "Yes."_

 _Ms. O sighs. That trick has never worked on Ori, and probably never will. "Yes, of course you can," she consents. "We'll finish it together. Now pull up a chair."_

 _"Yay!" Ori rushes around to the other side of the desk and drags over one of the wooden hexagon chairs next to Ms. O's swivel chair. He promptly plops down and announces, "Ready!"_

 _"Good," Ms. O says, putting her reading glasses back on. She holds the report so Ori can see it and points to a line on the typewritten page about two-thirds of the way down. "I left off right here…"_

* * *

"You!" Otto gasped. "It was you the whole time!"

Mariana Mag smirked. "Took you long enough to figure it out. I gotta say, well done on legitimately scaring me back at the F.T.S. Made me forget for a moment that the newspapers thought I was an employee, not the boss."

Otto was at a loss for words. "But—how—what—why?"

"Oh, do be more _specific_ , Otto!" she sneered. "You certainly had a tongue earlier today, use it!"

It was then Otto noticed he was trembling. With an effort he managed to get it under control. "Agent Ocean," he managed. "You weren't hiding Agent Ocean, you are Agent Ocean."

Now it was Carlos's turn to gasp. "Is it true? You're back?"

"It's gotta be true," Otto replied as his gaze fell on what should have been her yellow fanny pack on a thick black belt. "She's got her agent belt to prove it." Sure enough, the fanny pack and black belt were gone, revealing the red Investigation belt hidden underneath and the cause of the flash of red Otto had seen on her earlier. Wired in on the right side of the belt was a miniature white keyboard, and in the center was what looked like a little white life preserver, in place of the Odd Squad seal. Still glowing orange from the recent blast, the words around the edge read _Factorem Cyphris Praedor Nominas_. "Maker of Ciphers, Destroyer of Names," Otto translated without thinking.

Mariana Mag cocked her head. "A fellow Latin reader. Interesting. I knew I liked you for some reason. Why'd you have to go and ruin it all for me?"

Otto thought fast. It was only a matter of time before she decided to anagram him, too. He needed time to think of a plan. "R-ruin what?" he asked, trying to stall. "Your plan to anagram everyone on the squad? W-why wouldn't I? I mean, what could you have against Odd Squad anyway, if you were so nice to us before?"

"Nice? Ha!" she scoffed. "That wasn't being nice. That was acting, flattery, and toleration. As for the rest...well, you're just trying to stall for time while you think of a plan to defeat me, am I right?" She laughed at Otto's stricken look, but it wasn't the warm and friendly laugh he was used to. "Oh, please. Isn't that how it's done in the movies, distract the villain by getting them to tell their life story?"

"Um...uh..." Otto didn't know what to say.

Mariana Mag smirked again. "But what am I saying? In the movies, there's always a backup hiding in the shadows, ready to strike the villain as they jabber away. But you've got no one. What's left of Odd Squad is out for the night, and your three friends who might've come to your rescue are sadly out of commission. And soon, so will you. In other words, I've no reason not to tell you my life story."

Otto gulped and nodded. "Okay, sounds good." He forced out a nervous smile.

"Then let's begin. As you know, I was once known as Agent Ocean, number 38. I joined in 1985 when I was ten years old. No idea how I got recruited, to be honest. I was never very good with numbers, and that seemed to be all Odd Squad was interested in. But I definitely knew the ins and outs of words and language. My parents told me I was still smart because of that, and they encouraged me to go to the Academy for training regardless. So I did, and somehow I made it on the squad. I got assigned a partner, an agent by the name of Oksana."

" _Oksana?_ " Otto gasped in disbelief at the mention of the cafeteria agent's name. "She used to be a field agent?"

"Oh yes. She got recruited a few years before I did. Oksana was a decent partner, but we didn't talk a whole lot. We didn't really have a lot in common, and I think she was disgusted with me for not understanding math. Not that she offered to help or anything." Mariana Mag snorted. "I was planning to anagram her last… But I digress. Anyhow, I told Ms. O early on that I wasn't very good at math, and she seemed to actually understand. Pssh, the hypocrite. But at the time she told me that if I wanted to, I could be put in charge of handling any language cases. She said I'd be the only one solving them because there weren't very many, but that was fine by me. So I accepted.

"The first time I came here to the Language Room, I knew I'd found somewhere I could belong. Carlos and I had lots of fun together solving cases, and he became my best friend. I told him jokes, stories, secrets..." She trailed off and sighed. "It's the only thing I really miss about working for Odd Squad. Often I'd come here even when I wasn't solving a case. We'd write poems together, look up weird and complex words, puzzle each other with riddles, and come up with anagrams for people and things. Oksana tagged along most of the time because we were partners and she had to, but even she left Carlos and I alone together. We had such good times. Isn't that right, Carlos?

The Language Room sighed contentedly. "Ah, those were the days, weren't they?"

"Yes they were," Mariana Mag chuckled. Then Her face darkened. "Until it all came to an end...

"About nine years after I'd been recruited, Ms. O called me up to her office one day. Without any warning, she scolded me for not paying better attention to the math cases and for spending too much time with Carlos. I couldn't believe my ears. I argued that she'd never asked me to do so, to which she merely said that of course she hadn't, it was _expected_ I would improve on my math skills and leave language stuff behind. Well, I didn't like that at all. I tried to explain that math just wasn't my thing, I was doing just fine handling the language cases, thank you very much; but she would hear none of it. This made me furious. So, I decided to rebel."

"Like Odd Todd did," Otto noted.

She shot him a glare. "No, _not_ like Odd Todd did. He's pathetic, I tell you. A hot-tempered, selfish, impatient, smart-aleck brat. Thinks the villains might actually trust and accept him, but to real villains, once an agent means always an agent. He was certainly smart enough, he'd have done better staying with you. Ha! As soon as Todd realizes what'll happen to him without his badge, he'll panic and come back on his knees, begging and groveling at your feet for his job back."

Otto glanced down at his own badge. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you know? As long as you're a member of Odd Squad, your badge keeps you from aging. You stay on the squad long enough, it can actually youthen you by a year or two. That's why Ms. O has been around for over a century, and is always complaining about getting too young for her job. And that's how I stayed ten years old for ten years."

 _Ten years old for ten years…_ Otto was ten years old. Twenty, thirty years ago, so was Mariana Mag. Mentally he shook his head. How had someone his own age fallen so hard, so fast?

He was about to find out.

"Of course, I had to learn that the hard way," she scowled. "Not that I cared. Take Carlos out of the picture, and Odd Squad represented all the ways I wasn't allowed to express myself. So I took matters into my own hands. I started spending more time in the lab, watching the scientists build and test new gadgets, and I wondered why they'd never made any gadgets programmed with words instead of numbers. Then I figured there's a first time for everything, so I might as well try it myself. I asked Carlos what my gadget should do, and he told me it should involve whatever I loved most about words."

"Anagrams?" Otto guessed.

"Exactly. Not only that, I realized that literally anagramming people's names or titles was the perfect way to rebel against Odd Squad's narrow-mindedness. So with Carlos's help and Oksana's agreement to keep silent about my rebellion, I spent the next year building a rough prototype of my Anagraminator. I was no scientist and it was difficult to make, not to mention it looked ugly and ramshackle when I finally finished it, but it did the job. With my gadget ready to go, next I came up with a plan of attack. I decided to arrive to work one day, anagram several agents and maybe even parts of headquarters, then demand that words and language be incorporated into Odd Squad doctrine and _modus operandi_ in exchange for the agents back safely."

"But it didn't work," Otto guessed. "Ms. O told us this part. You ruined half of HQ with your Anagraminator and she had no choice but to fire you—"

"The hypocrite!" Mariana Mag spat, her face growing red with anger. "Of course she would exaggerate it like that. Ruining half of headquarters? That's not what happened at all! Sure, I anagrammed lots of it and many of the agents, but I turned it all back to normal as soon as I was promised what I wanted. But did Ms. O keep her end of the bargain? Nope! As soon as I'd fixed them, she set several of her agents upon me to confiscate my precious Anagraminator and destroy it while I was restrained. Then she forced me to tell her how I built it and who helped me. To punish Carlos for 'aiding and abetting' me, she banned every agent from going to see him ever again. To punish Oksana for her silence, she demoted her from field agent to kitchen staff. Finally, to punish me for 'going rogue', she took my badge and had the scientists bring out the Memory-Wipinator."

Otto felt his jaw drop. "They _wiped_ your _memory?!_ "

"Not all of it," she amended. "Just the part of me that knew where this squad's headquarters was located and how to get to it. Apparently it's routine to do that with the roguest ex-agents—Odd Todd notwithstanding since he chose to leave before he was deemed rogue. But that's what happened to me. And it was awful..." She shuddered. "It was like they vivisected my brain and tore parts of it out. I think I went unconscious afterward, because next thing I knew I was waking up at home to my parents' disapproving stares. Dad never forgave me for disgracing the Flounder family, and I never fully regained his trust."

For a brief moment, Mariana Mag's lips drooped and her eyes brimmed with tears. But the moment passed quickly, and her steely demeanor returned. "Without my badge, I started aging normally again. The next year I turned eleven, after that twelve, and so on. I went back to school and began to think about colleges and careers. No matter what my dad thought, I still loved aquariums and marine life, and I was determined to take over the family business. He had no choice but to let me; I'm an only child, after all. But through all those years, I never stopped hating Odd Squad. Mom thinks I got OCD from it, but whatever it was, it kept me going. I even rebuilt my Anagraminator, although without Carlos or the lab at my disposal it took several years to do so. Then, when I had finished college and gotten my career underway, I gave myself a good villain name and set out to find your squad and seek my revenge. So...yep. That's my life story. Any questions?"

Under different circumstances, Otto might have laughed at the glib way she finished her tale. As it was, the former rogue agent had made her way threateningly closer to him over the course of her story, until he was literally backed into a corner against the railing. But he did actually have a question. "Th-the other day," he managed, "you infiltrated Odd Squad with an odd case. That thing with your fingers. Obviously you faked it somehow, yet when Olive and I checked, those eggs and magnifiers looked real. So how did you do that?"

Mariana Mag rolled her eyes and pointed to her belt. "Were you not listening? I have an Anagraminator! All I had to do was anagram my fingers into something else, then fix them by secretly hitting the—I mean, by doing it at the same time that Oscar fired the Putbackinator. Simple!"

Gripping the railing, Otto nodded. "Impressive," he agreed, feigning terrified nonchalance. But his mind was racing. Mariana Mag had stopped herself from saying something about how to reverse an anagram. It had to be something on her belt. _Maybe if I could just get close enough…_

"Now, if you don't have any more dumb questions," Mariana Mag interrupted his thoughts, clapping her hands together briskly, "we have some business to attend to. As much as I find you likeable enough to tell my life story to, I'm afraid it's not enough to spare you the price of this information." Reaching behind her, she pulled a stun gun off her belt and aimed it straight at Otto. "I can't have you going around blabbing about this to the miserably few agents left on the squad. Nor can I have you using this information against me to foil my plans. So while I come up with a fitting anagram, it's time I put you out of action."

 _Screw getting close enough._

Without really thinking about what he was doing, Otto pushed off the railing and charged.


	11. Chapter 10b

**A/N Saw _Trials and Tubulations_ the other day. Awesome episode, even if it totally discredited my OlivexOscar ship... lol oh well. So before I forget to mention this, I realized that I won't have room in the next two chapters to explain every single anagram I wrote about in the story, so if any of you readers can't figure out certain anagrams on your own and want to know what they are, feel free to message me about it and I'll tell you.  
Alright, guess that's all I have to say. Only one more chapter to go, so stay tuned! :D**

Chapter 10b

There are two things you should never do when you are cornered. One is give in to your panic and let it control you. The other is act on impulse and hope for the best. Unfortunately, no one had ever told either piece of advice to Otto.

Which is why he found himself charging at top speed at a dangerous madwoman with a gun, screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs.

Luckily, for a split second Mariana Mag seemed caught off guard. Surprised, she instinctively lowered the gun and took a step back, giving Otto the perfect opportunity to make a lunge for her belt. By that time she was recovered enough from the initial shock to shove him away, but not before he had made a wild grab at her keyboard.

And it just so happened that his pinky barely pressed 'Backspace'.

Behind Otto, the basket of kittens lit up with an orange glow. With a loud _zap!_ the glow turned into a white-hot beam that shot back into the Anagraminator. When the light cleared, a dazed-looking Agent Oscar was plopped on the floor right where the kittens had been.

Otto broke out grinning. "The backspace key! It reverses the last anagram made!" He breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad you're back, Oscar!"

The scientist slowly made it to his feet and brushed some stray cat hair off his lab coat. "Back and informed," he corrected, returning the grin awkwardly. "You'd be surprised how good cats' hearing is." He narrowed his eyes at Mariana Mag. "Quite a story, Agent Ocean. Afraid I can't sympathize, though."

The rogue agent stamped her foot and growled in frustration. "No one's ever reversed my anagrams before. Great, now I have _two_ of you to deal with!" Then a sly grin crept across her face. "No matter. I'll finish both of you off soon enough." And in the blink of an eye, she had her stun gun up and pulled the trigger.

But Otto and Oscar were one step ahead of her. "Shields up!" they called out in unison, whipping out their bronze shields. " _For Odd Squad! ! !_ "

Over the next several minutes, Carlos watched anxiously as the battle unfolded. Mariana Mag fired her stun gun at the two boys relentlessly, yet somehow they managed to block every shot. But it wouldn't be too long before one of them was going to tire, and then both of them would be stunned soon after. Meanwhile, Carlos was torn. For thirty years, his loyalties had lain unquestionably with Ocean, agent or not. But watching her mercilessly attack two innocent boys like this…?

And it was about to get worse. Sure enough, after blocking a shot at his head, Oscar forgot to bring the shield back down to watch for the gun. Immediately there was a sharp pain in his left foot and it gave out under him. "Gaah!" he cried out, dropping the shield as he stumbled backward.

"Oscar, look out—!" Otto began, but it was too late. In a flash of blue, Oscar was blasted again and went perfectly still, his eyes frozen open in horror. Distracted, Otto didn't notice that he'd lowered his shield just a little too much.

Nor did he hear the click of a trigger.

Suddenly there was a searing pain shooting down the entire right side of his body, followed by an incredible numbness and limpness. Otto collapsed, the shield dropping from his arm and rolling off the platform. He heard the stun gun clatter to the floor, followed by briskly approaching footsteps. Next thing he knew, he was being hoisted up by two strong, lithe arms. Mariana Mag's long and slender fingers—obvious now that their quick and adept movements came from constant typing and gadget repair—grabbed his frozen head by the jaw and turned it to face her.

"Now let's see..." she murmured with a dangerous smile, "how should I anagram you? 'Agent Otto' doesn't have very many good options to choose from. Not like with your friends. Hmm, maybe if I did ' _Stunned_ Agent Otto', what would that give me…? Aha! 'Tungsten Toad Note', now _that_ would be interesting! I could make you into a little notepad with a toad made of tungsten on it." She let out a harsh laugh. "Maybe I won't feel so sorry for anagramming you, after all. Say goodbye to life as you knew it, Stunned Agent Otto!" And her fingers began to type.

"Ocean, _stop! ! !_ "

Mariana Mag froze. "Carlos?" She turned to face the Language Room. "What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"That doesn't matter, Ocean. Don't you know what you're doing?" Different from his miserableness of before, Carlos actually sounded close to tears. "This isn't who you are. Remember when you used to visit me all those years ago? You were so happy, so hopeful, so young, so...innocent. Where did you go?"

The woman who was once Agent Ocean blinked, her wicked demeanor gone. "But—Carlos, it's me! I'm right here! I came back, like I always said I would."

"But at what cost?"

"Cost?" She faltered. "What do you mean?"

Meanwhile, the immobilized Otto seemed to have been forgotten. Mentally he grimaced. Although he appreciated Carlos's last minute efforts to reform his onetime friend, all it would end up amounting to would be delaying the inevitable. The thought made him sick with worry. It didn't help that his left arm, crushed against Mariana Mag's side, was developing an uncomfortable cramp, and his hand was starting to itch—

 _Hang on. The only way I could get a cramp or an itch...is if that arm wasn't stunned!_

He wiggled his fingers to make sure, and just as he suspected, they could move. Even mostly immobilized, Otto could barely contain his excitement as his mind started formulating a plan.

Carlos sighed. "You've taken the livelihoods of dozens of innocent people, all to get revenge on just one person. And even then, why revenge?"

"Because she ruined my career!" Mariana Mag protested. "I thought Ms. O wanted me on the squad for who I was, not for someone I could never be. And she wouldn't listen no matter what I did!"

 _Now I just have to figure out her name_ , Otto thought as he stealthily pulled his left hand out of his pocket, mirror in hand. _Something Ocean Flounder, and the something starts with M._ He recalled her anagrammed fingers. _What if her name was used in that anagram? Let's see, put together 'eggs' and 'magnifiers' and you get…_

"Ocean, I understand. I've _never_ trusted Ms. O, remember? She's always disrespected me as long as I can remember. But she has her reasons, and we'd never know because we've never bothered to _ask_. And I have a twin sister, don't I? Carol could have been our go-between for your problems with Ms. O."

Mariana Mag bit her lip. "I never knew," she said quietly. "I never visited the Math Room."

 _If 'Backspace' reverses the anagram, then which key creates it?_

"It doesn't matter now," Carlos told her gently. "What does matter is that you stop this and set things right. Please? For my sake?"

 _Here goes._ Slowly, carefully, Otto began to type in her name.

"For your sake," she repeated. "Oh, Carlos...my dearest friend..." Her eyes filled and her lip trembled. For one brief, shining moment, the villain faded away and left behind a bright-eyed, eager ten-year-old girl, with hopes, dreams, and not a care in the world. For one shining moment…

And then the moment passed, and Mariana Mag was back. Her eyes turned hard as flint, and she set her jaw defiantly. "It's too late for that, Carlos," she said coldly. "I have to finish what I started. I'm never going back now." She looked down at Otto—just in time to see him press the 'Enter' key on her belt. "What—but you're—" She gasped. " _Nodon'ttouchthat!_ "

But Otto had already hit the center orange button.

A white-hot orange-tinged beam shot out and hit Otto's mirror, bouncing back to zap Mariana Mag squarely in the chest. "NOOOOO _OOOO_ ooooo _oooooo..._ " she screamed, her cry dwindling away as the beam enveloped her and she began to shrink. Her grip released, and Otto slipped out of her disappearing arms and crashed to the floor, hitting his head hard. Everything went dark.

* * *

"...Otto…! ...Otto…! ...OTTO!"

Otto's eyes, glazed over from unconsciousness, brightened as everything came into focus again. One of Carlos's paper figures was peering down at him anxiously. "Agent Otto, thank goodness you're awake!"

Otto tried to speak, but his mouth was still frozen shut.

"Don't worry, you've only been out for a few minutes," Carlos went on, all of the drone and miserableness gone from his voice. Otto had the whimsical notion that it now sounded kind of like C-3PO from _Star Wars_. "Oh, and you might want to unfreeze yourself. The stun gun is over to your right, above your head. I think you can still reach it with your left arm, though."

 _Only one way to find out,_ Otto thought wryly. With an effort he managed to flop his left arm across his chest and fumble it around to find the stun gun. Eventually his hand closed on the hilt, and he brought it up to his face and examined it.

"There's a little green switch on the side," Carlos explained. "Flip that, and it'll set to 'unstun' mode."

Otto did as Carlos instructed, then aimed the gun at his chest and fired. Immediately the numbness disappeared, and he could move again. Slowly and shakily, Otto stood up. "Thanks, Carlos," he managed with a small smile. "For everything."

"It was what had to be done," Carlos merely said. "For my sake, for your sake, and for Ocean's sake, too."

"Right." That said, Otto turned to Oscar and unfroze him, then helped the scientist to his feet. "You alright?"

Oscar drew in a shaky breath. "Fine, fine, great, heh heh." Adjusting his spectacles, his eyes fell on an object resting on the floor a little ways off. "Is that her?"

"Mm-hmm." The object in question happened to be a small maroon floor rug. It had no designs on it except for a pitcher of lemonade in the center and four figs, one in each corner. Next to the rug was Mariana Mag's belt and Anagraminator.

Oscar shook his head in amazement. "How did you know what to anagram her into?"

Otto smiled. All he said was, "Her real name is Maggie Flounder."


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N Sorry for the long wait on this, it was a difficult chapter to write and it's probably a little cheesy at the end. :( But here we are! More A/N at the bottom.**

Chapter 11

"Alright, Otto, here's the last one," Oscar said, grunting with effort as he pushed the oven out of a corner of the lab.

"Finally!" Otto said, anxious to get his partner back. Holding up the belt, he studied the keyboard. "What did Carlos say her anagram was, again?"

Oscar scratched his head. "I think it was 'a legit oven'. With the 'a' at the beginning included."

"That's right. She and Coach Roberts were the weird ones. Although doing 'estimated iodine' for Estimation Eddie was kinda strange, too." Shrugging, Otto typed in his partner's anagram and hit 'Backspace'. The oven lit up with an orange glow and zapped a bright white beam into the Anagraminator. When the light cleared, the oven was gone and Agent Olive was left standing in its place.

But she didn't react at first. "Olive? You're back," Otto prompted, raising an eyebrow.

"I am?" Olive clapped a hand over her mouth, then looked down at it in amazement. With wide eyes, she checked her arms and legs to make sure. "I am!" she laughed in delight. "Glad to be back, partner."

Otto beamed. "It's good to _have_ you back. Really good."

She chuckled. "So," she said, glancing at Oscar then back at Otto, "I guess you solved the case while I was MIA. Tell me, what did I miss?"

"Well," Otto began, "it's a long story..."

"...and then we came back here this morning to get everyone turned back to normal, and now we're here!" Oscar finished, several minutes later.

Olive nodded thoughtfully. "I see. So Mariana Mag is gone?"

Otto and Oscar exchanged glances. "Isn't there something we need to take care of first…?" Oscar asked.

"Ms. O told us to meet her in her office when we were finished here," Otto explained to his partner. "She said it's about Mariana Mag. I think there's something she wanted us to see."

Moments later, the trio arrived in Ms. O's office to find her sitting on the couch, the fig lemonade rug rolled up and propped on the cushion next to her. "There you are," she greeted them. "Nice to see you back, Agent Olive."

"It's good to be back," Olive said with a grin. "And don't mind me saying this, but from what they told me, you're probably thinking the same thing."

Ms. O pursed her lips. "Let's just say if oatmeal wasn't already banned from the cafeteria, I would make sure it was." She stood up. "But enough chitchat! We've got important business to take care of. Otto, hand me the Anagraminator."

Otto started to hold the belt out to her, then paused. "Are you sure we should really destroy it? I mean, with—"

"Don't be ridiculous, Otto!" she cut him off, rolling her eyes. "Duh, of _course_ we can't destroy this. Quite the opposite, in fact." Taking the belt from him, Ms. O aimed the Anagraminator at the rug, then typed 'fig lemonade rug' into the keyboard and pressed 'Backspace'.

When the light from the ensuing flash cleared, sitting on the couch was a thirty-year-old woman with freckles, green eyes, strawberry-blonde hair, and long slender fingers. The wetsuit was gone, and in its place she wore a plain white cotton dress.

"Agents," Ms. O announced, "may I introduce you to Maggie Ocean Flounder." She looked questioningly at the woman. "Though, what would you prefer to go by?"

"Maggie's fine," the woman mumbled. She took a sudden interest in her bare feet. "Ocean's dead to me. Dead since 1995."

"I'll take responsibility for being her executioner," Ms. O said gently, sitting beside her. "At least, that's what I understand."

Maggie shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much." She glanced at Otto with a small smile. "If it's worth anything, Mariana Mag is dead, too. Otto took care of that."

Otto smiled back, blushing slightly.

"And we're all very grateful that he did," Ms. O agreed. "But that's not what I wanted to discuss with you. There are some important matters we need to settle."

"You don't need to tell me," Maggie said gloomily. "I already know. I'll lose my job and the aquarium, be turned in to the police, and pretty soon my face will be on the front page of the papers as a dangerous villain."

Ms. O blinked. "Um...no. That's not it at all. You just said yourself that Mariana Mag was dead, didn't you? No, what I wanted to say was...you were right."

It was Maggie's turn to blink. "What?"

"You were right," Ms. O repeated. "All those years ago, when you accused Odd Squad of narrow-mindedness. You were right, and I was wrong. Odd Squad _does_ need to broaden its horizons past solving problems with math and numbers. Oksana could've told you the same if you'd ever asked her."

"Huh?" four surprised voices chorused.

"When she joined back in 1980, one of the first things she asked the old Ms. O was about cases involving music theory instead of numbers. The old Ms. O shot down the idea and told her never to speak of it again. That's probably why Oksana was willing to keep silent for you, Maggie. It's also why I still let her DJ at dance parties and play her own music in the break room, because she loves it so much. And now, after all this, I finally see how wrong I was, as with every Ms. O before me. From now on, oddness involving words or music or anything else instead of numbers will not be ignored. It will be treated like any other odd case and solved with words or music." She gave Oscar a pointed look. "Which means you've got several new gadgets you need to invent."

"Oh! Uh, yes ma'am!" Oscar saluted in bewilderment. He looked both eager and terrified.

Maggie was practically glowing with happiness. "Thank you, Ms. O. Agent Ocean would've been so proud."

"So now that we've got that settled," Ms. O continued, "let's talk about the aquarium."

"Oh..." Maggie's glow faded. "Who's taking it over?"

Ms. O smiled warmly. "Maggie Ocean Flounder, of course. We can't have it going back into the hands of Mariana Mag, can we?"

"Plus we've seen how much you love your animals," Otto added, catching on, "especially Diesel."

"And it's obvious you're not a villain anymore, so there'd be no point to taking away your job," Olive chimed in.

"Exactly," Ms. O agreed. "Of course, you _could_ always turn yourself in if you _really_ wanted to..."

Maggie laughed. "No, thank you! I'll take the aquarium over that!" Barely able to contain her excitement, she hugged Ms. O. "I can't thank you enough. If only I'd known you were this forgiving!"

Ms. O winced, obviously uncomfortable with the hug. "Yes, well, my pleasure." She wriggled away. "And you're welcome to visit Odd Squad anytime. Especially since your best friend is here."

"You mean Carlos?" Maggie cocked her head. "But I don't have a badge. I stole yours to get in last night, remember? How would I—"

"Oscar?"

"Oh! Ah, yes!" Oscar reached into his lab coat and pulled out a gadget. "Portalnator," he explained, handing it to her. "Just set it to 'Language Room' and off you go."

Maggie took the gadget carefully and did as he said. Eagerly she jumped into the portal that appeared in front of her and winked out of sight.

"She'll also get to meet Carol," Ms. O added, somewhat to herself. "The twins are finally visiting each other again."

Olive grinned. "I think we made several people happy today," she said, high-fiving Otto and Oscar. "Thanks to you guys."

"Well," Otto amended, "Maggie was half wrong. It was Carlos who really stopped Mariana Mag. I just helped. And Ms. O was the only one who could set things right."

"And, heh-heh, I didn't really do anything," Oscar put in with a trademark awkward smile. "It was more of a group effort."

Olive rolled her eyes playfully. "Okay, fine. Whatever you say."

Ms. O cleared her throat pointedly. "Now if you three are finished congratulating each other, I have assignments for you all." She made her way back to her desk, giving instructions over her shoulder as she did so. "Oscar, go back down to the lab and repair all the gadgets we took apart to solve this case. Olive and Otto, take the Anagraminator and head to the next town over. Mr. O's squad will need it to reverse the anagrams on all its victims. Same goes for the other towns Mariana Mag attacked." Seated in her chair, Ms. O once again became her normal stern self. "Well, what are you waiting for? _GO!_ "

Moments later, as they waved Oscar goodbye on their way to the tubes, Otto nudged Olive. "So now that we've solved this case, am I allowed back into your puzzle book?"

Olive huffed. "Okay, fine. But," she added, holding up the Anagraminator for emphasis, "only if you teach me how to solve anagrams for myself."

Otto laughed. "Deal!"

* * *

 _"Wow, that was awesome!" Ori exclaims, bouncing in his seat. "I liked the part where they were shooting at each other. Pew-pew! Pew!"_

 _Ms. O chuckles as she seals up the case file and drops it into her filing cabinet. "Yes, it was certainly an interesting case." She glances at the clock on her desk, which shows the time as 2:43 in the afternoon. "Juice boxes! It's almost three o'clock!"_

 _"What's at three o'clock?" Ori asks._

 _"Never mind," she says, shaking her head and standing up. "But Ori, I need you to leave. Go find a case or something to work on. Someone very important is coming to visit, and I can't have any interruptions. Now GO!"_

 _"Yesiree, Ms. O!" Ori scampers out of the office and out of sight._

 _No sooner does he leave than two men in khaki uniforms enter the office with a large cardboard box between them. "Special delivery for Ms. O," one of them says as they set down the box. He whips out a clipboard. "Sign here, ma'am."_

 _Ms. O does, then dismisses them with a thank-you. When the two men are gone, she hurries over to the box and tears it open. "Phew! They got the order right," she mutters to herself, counting all ten jars of jellybeans. "Now I just hope she likes these..."_

* * *

 **A/N Welp. That's all, folks! (To quote Porky Pig XD) For this story, that is. I'm working on three more short fics for the three winners of the Contest, one of which is hinted at in that last part above. Hopefully those will be up within a couple weeks, vacation and band camp permitting. Then when those are done, I have a HUGE fanfic planned, and this will be the background story to "Olive's Last Partner" and will involve ALL of my ships. So lots of exciting stuff coming up, yay! :D**

 **In the meantime, a ginormous thank-you to all my loyal readers/reviewers for supporting this story, and "Olive's Last Partner" (now up to 4,693 views!). Thank you all so much, I couldn't have done it without you. :) See you all again soon!**


End file.
